


Boxes in the Attic

by mercy_angel_09



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Cleaning out the Chief's house, F/M, Family, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Secret hobbies, Tripping down memory lane, family pictures of doom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-25 21:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/643207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercy_angel_09/pseuds/mercy_angel_09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan and Audrey clean out the Chief's house. Bonding ensues. Mostly friendship, but light romance. Lots of speculation about Nathan's past and spoilers pretty much up to mid-season 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Storage Room

Nathan was a go-getter, by most standards. He had never wanted to seem unworthy in his father's eyes, and so he worked twice as hard as anyone else in order to make a good impression. After a while he realized that he would never truly have his father's approval, so he settled into doing what was expected him as far as his professional life went, leaving his hard working attitude to his personal life. Cleaning, yard work, home repairs – all of it Nathan did with gusto and an attention to detail that really only showed when he was working an important case.

The fact that he had left the Chief's house alone for the last three weeks spoke volumes. Audrey refused to even approach the subject following the first attempt after the Chief's memorial service. After Nathan's freeze out, she realized it was futile to try and push the issue. After all, the Teagues had been urging Nathan to clean out the house and all that had resulted in was the interim chief's steadfast refusal to even drive within a mile of the place.

However three weeks after the memorial service Nathan realized that he couldn't let it sit any longer, and despite his own reservations about what he was about to do, it had to be done.

It was his first day off in a while, and he had left a message with Laverne that barring the end of the world, he was not to be disturbed over the weekend. It was going to take the next two days to sort through his father's house, and that was if he could detach himself from the project at hand and simply get things sorted into what would be saved, what would be thrown away, and what would be given away. It wasn't a task he relished doing – he hadn't been "home" since shortly after he graduated from college, and there were ghosts there he had to face. Ghosts he had been avoiding.

He pulled the Bronco up to the garage and climbed out, taking a deep breath before walking around to the front of the house. For some reason it didn't feel right to go through the back door. He should have been surprised to find Audrey sitting on the front steps with two cups of coffee in hand, but if he were to be completely honest with himself, he was glad that she was there. He sauntered over to her, one eyebrow cocked at her in a silent question.

"Laverne said you didn't want to be bothered for the whole weekend. I figured that you were finally going through the Chief's things," Audrey said as she held out a paper coffee cup.

Nathan nodded as he reached for the offered coffee. "I can't say that I'm surprised to see you here."

"It'll go faster with two of us working on it," Audrey shrugged as she rose and followed Nathan to the door. She said nothing as he took the time to work up the courage to actually open the door. He slid the key in and turned it, and with a light push the door swung open. She didn't know what to expect from the Chief's house, but it looked normal to her.

"We'll start in the attic and work our way down. That way we're not tracking dust into the parts of the house we've already cleaned," Nathan said as he made his way for the stairs. Passing quickly through a nautically themed living room towards the back of the house, Audrey followed her partner, only glimpsing the kitchen and a bathroom before heading up stairs.

"Is there an attic?" Audrey asked skeptically as she climbed up the stairs behind Nathan. "From the street view, it doesn't look like it."

"It's not an attic, technically," Nathan clarified. "It's a storage room off the master bedroom. For all intents and purposes, it was the attic," Nathan shrugged. "There's also a basement. I believe that's where we'll be ending this weekend."

"Was your dad a pack rat?" At Nathan's glare Audrey held her hands up in defense. "I just want to know if we'll be going through years and years of stuff or only the stuff that has some sort of sentimental attachment to it."

"The Chief wasn't one to hold on stuff," Nathan answered with an irritated huff. "I don't expect to find much beyond some Christmas decorations and a few family albums. Now, if my mom had some stuff boxed up that I didn't know about, we'll probably find that stuff, too."

At the top of the stairs was a short hallway, with a door directly in front of them. Audrey looked around, trying to acquaint herself with the floor plan. "So what's where?"

Nathan pointed to his left. "That's the Chief's room. It was my parents' room when Mom was still alive." Indicating to the door in front of him, he continued. "That is the door to the storage room." Finally he pointed to the right. "Down that hall; first is the bathroom, then a utility closet, and the door at the end of the hallway was my room when I was still living here. I'm sure by now the Chief has thrown everything but the furniture away."

"Did you take anything with you when you left?" Audrey asked as Nathan opened up the door to the storage room and groped for the light switch.

"I took my clothes, various trophies and plaques I'd accumulated, the important stuff. I did leave quite a bit. When I bought my house I got it fully furnished. I didn't need to take much more than my personal belongings. What I left behind I didn't care about," Nathan shrugged as he finally found the light switch. Flicking it on, he blinked and sighed. "I suppose we should get to work."

"Cleaning supplies?" Audrey asked, noting the fine layer of dust that seemed to coat the entire room.

"In the utility closet, it's that smaller door between the bathroom door and the bedroom door, but not the one with the plank doors. That's the linen closet," Nathan said, and as Audrey vanished to track down cleaning supplies, he surveyed the meager contents of the room. There was a beautifully crafted cedar chest tucked under some shelves, while several storage boxes were placed on an adjacent wall. On the shelf under the storage boxes was a row of leather bound photo albums which Nathan had forgotten about. They had once been kept in the living room, but after his mom died, the Chief had placed them in the storage room, never to be seen again.

"Okay, I've located a couple of dusters, a vacuum, a mop and bucket and a few scrub brushes. Would the broom be down stairs?" Audrey reappeared in the door way packing a bucket full of cleaning supplies in one hand and a mop in the other.

"There should be a broom in the kitchen. I'll go get it. Go ahead and start dusting the shelves," Nathan instructed as he moved past her and headed towards the stairs.

Shrugging off her jacket and laying it over the banister, Audrey grabbed one of the feather dusters and started at the windows. Years of dust and cobwebs seemed to coat the room, and for a moment Audrey wondered if it would be a better idea to take the vacuum to the cobwebs before she started dusting.

Nathan found her fighting with the vacuum when he returned with the broom. She had plugged it into the outlet in the hallway, which was probably the best idea as he had no idea if there were even outlets in the storage room, and was stretching and reaching in an attempt to suck something out of the corner of the room.

"Die, you eight legged bastard," he heard her mumble and he cracked a small smile. She was going after the spiders then.

"Everything okay?" he asked as he walked up behind her.

Startled, Audrey spun and hit him in the face with hose extension. In true Nathan fashion, he didn't even flinch, as if getting hit in the face with a vacuum hose was the most natural thing in the world. She immediately shut off the vacuum and dropped the hose to the floor. "Oh my God, Nathan! I'm sorry! You startled me!"

He blinked a few times and placed his hand on his temple, right about where she had hit him. "Obviously."

"I just thought that there were so many cobwebs in here that I should get those with the vacuum first, and then I would dust. Dusters with cobwebs never work as well as dusters without cobwebs," she rambled.

"It's okay, Parker. It didn't hurt."

She winced. "I know it didn't hurt, but I still feel bad about hitting you."

"It's fine," he grunted.

"So, um, what are you going to do?"Audrey asked him. "It's kind of pointless to sweep if I'm just going to be kicking up a lot of dust in a few minutes."

"I need to go through the boxes and determine what's being saved, what's being given away and what's being tossed," he said, jerking his head in the general direction of boxes and the photo albums. "If you can do the cleaning while I go through the boxes, that would be great."

To say that Audrey wasn't curious about the contents of the boxes would be a lie. Audrey was dying to know what was in them, but she respected Nathan's privacy too much to ask. So she continued to vanquish cobwebs and spiders while Nathan grabbed a box, stuck it on the floor, and sat down next to it. He took a deep breath and then opened it, peering into it as if it held a trap.

A picture of his mother and the Chief smiled up at him. He had no idea when the photo was taken, but there was no denying how happy they both looked. He picked up the photo only to find more beneath it. He remembered that these photos once decorated the walls of the house. They had once been proudly displayed in the living room, in the hallways and along the stairs. His mother had always been so proud of the Wuornos Family Gallery, as she had called it.

After she died, the Chief had taken them all down. Nathan had always assumed that he had just carelessly tossed them into the garbage. Instead they had been packed away with tenderness and care. What was with that man and his layers? Why had he kept so much hidden away from Nathan?

After establishing that the only boxes in the storage room held the old family photos, he moved to pull out the cedar chest. He tugged it out from under the shelf, and then grabbed a rag and furniture polish. As he cleared away years of dust, he noted the fine craftsmanship. An intricate nautical theme had been carved on the front and the lid, while a rope wound around the sides and back. He vaguely remembered the chest sitting at the end of his parents' bed when he was boy, and sometimes his mother would let him borrow it when he was pretending to be a pirate with the other neighborhood boys.

A cold feeling settled in his stomach as Nathan carefully undid the hinges. He couldn't remember what the chest had held. His mother had always cleaned it out before she let him play with it, and as far as young Nathan was concerned, it was his mother's treasure chest, a sacred place for her special things and a boy's sense of reverence had quashed any curiosity to see what was in inside it.

"Wow, that's beautiful," Audrey spoke up, leaning over to examine the schooner carved on the lid. "It has to be antique."

"It was my mother's," Nathan told her as he let his fingers drift over the intricately carved waves, wishing he could feel them. "She used to let me borrow it when I'd play pirates with the other boys in the neighborhood."

"Was Duke one of those boys?" Audrey asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Half of Nathan's mouth quirked up into a smile. "While the rest of us outgrew it, he, on the other hand, did not."

Audrey laughed as she sat down next to Nathan on the dusty floor. "Well, open it up."

He opened the lid slowly, not entirely sure what to expect. The scent of cedar greeted their noses, which was infinitely better than the mothball smell they were expecting. Once the lid was up, both Nathan and Audrey leaned over the lip of the chest, took one look inside, and then they looked at each other.

"This belonged to your mother?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah," Nathan replied as he reached in a pulled out a leather bound journal. He flipped it open and saw his mother's familiar handwriting. Perhaps there were answers to his questions about his past in these journals, answers he wasn't sure if he was ready for.

Meanwhile Audrey had reached in and pulled out a mass of age yellowed satin and chiffon. She carefully shook it out and held it up to her body, and then gasped. "Oh my…"

Nathan looked up. It was a wedding dress most likely from the early 1900s, satin and lace and chiffon. It had tiny seed pearls sewn along the cuffs and collar, wide satin ribbon along the hem and as a belt around the waist, and a very delicate lace ruffle along the neck and wrists. "Is that a wedding dress?"

"I think so," Audrey said as she gingerly ran her fingers along the bodice. "It's beautiful. I think this is the kind of dress that every girl dreams of for her wedding. I know I did." She twirled around once and then grinned sheepishly down at Nathan. "I guess even I have my super girly moments."

Suddenly an image of Audrey gliding down the aisle of a church towards him wearing the dress came to Nathan's mind. He blinked rapidly a few times to wipe the fantasy from his brain, which was unhelpfully concocting a whole intricate wedding scenario. There were bridesmaids and groomsmen and an adorable little flower girl. Elaborate floral arrangements decorated the whole church. And good heavens, when had he begun to think of Audrey that way?

"You know, I never saw any wedding photos growing up. Now that I think about it, I never saw any sort of a reminder of it anywhere in the house," Nathan said quietly. "Not a dried bouquet, a cake topper, anything; let alone the two of them celebrating an anniversary. It was like they were never married."

"Well, seeing as the Chief wasn't your biological father, I suppose it's possible," Audrey admitted reluctantly as she began to fold the dress up. "I have to admit, it seems like a waste to store this. It's a museum piece, though it should be properly cleaned first. Who knows how long it's been in storage, or the last time it was cleaned."

Nathan merely shrugged as he reached into the chest once more and pulled out a five by seven silver picture frame. In it was a wedding photo of his mother and the Chief, smiling happily out. She wore the dress that Audrey had pulled from the chest while the Chief wore his dress blues. From the look of it, they were standing in the lobby of the town hall from the mid eighties. He seemed to recognize the trophy in the case behind them from the city's softball team.

"Parker, look at this," he said as he handed her the frame.

Audrey took it and smiled. "They look happy."

"It was so long ago I don't remember it well, but I do remember some happy times. But the bad outweighed the good by so much, it was easy to forget that there were even good times," he mused sadly.

Carefully Audrey removed the back of the frame and let out a speculative hum. "There's a date on the back of this photo." She handed it back to Nathan so he could see.

His eyebrows knit together as he frowned. "This was the year after Max Hansen was locked up in Shawshank," he said as he handed the photo back.

"You didn't know?" Audrey asked as she replaced the back of the frame. She had wondered, but the Teagues weren't willing to tell her anything that Nathan didn't already know, and since Nathan hadn't been asking, the newspaper boys had been oddly silent.

"I always assumed that they were married. It never occurred to me that they weren't, at least not for the first several years," Nathan answered softly.

Dropping to her knees next to Nathan, Audrey pulled him into her arms. She leaned her head against his and gently patted his shoulder. "I can't imagine how hard this is for you. Everything that you thought you knew turned out to be a lie."

"I think you can relate on some level. You don't know who you are," he pointed out.

"That is certainly true," Audrey agreed as she released him. She took a breath and then frowned at the chest. "So what do you want to do with it?"

"I'll pack it up again and all of these boxes are going to come home with me," he said as he stood, Audrey rising with him. "Who knows, I might get the dress cleaned and donate it to the Haven museum. I'm sure they'd love to have a dress from the turn of last century."

"Well, if you're going to take those down to the truck, I'll continue cleaning in here. I'm pretty sure I've got all of the cobwebs, so I'll move on to dusting," Audrey said as she picked up duster. "On the plus side, if every room is as empty as this one, it should be relatively easy to get through everything."

Nathan couldn't help but chuckle at Audrey's optimism that the job would be done quickly. "This is Haven. When has anything gone relatively easy?" he reminded her.

"Well, crap," she muttered. "Fine, let's just hope that the worst that we'll find are spiders."


	2. The Chief's Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A voice from the past sheds some light on Nathan's history and Audrey learns that the Chief wasn't the tidiest of people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things to keep in mind - I picked a name for Nathan's mother on a whim, and it just seemed to fit. I have no idea if anyone else has guesses about her name (or if it's even been mentioned on the show - though I'm sure I would have caught it, I've seen every episode at least twice). Anyway, moving on. I wanted her to have a voice and provide some exposition regarding Nathan's mysterious past, which is complete conjecture and will probably be Jossed in coming seasons.
> 
> Also something to keep in mind, when I wrote this I was operating under the assumption that the Chief was roughly the same age as the Teagues. Of course in "Sarah" we learned that Garland was probably no more than eight years old in 1955 and that the Teagues were most likely in their late teens/early twenties. I haven't bothered to revise this because I wrote this well before season 3 aired, and I rather like this headcanon that I'm working in.

Closing up the storage room, Audrey sneezed. Without thinking, Nathan quickly went into the bathroom and grabbed a handful of Kleenex that he handed her on his way to the Chief's room. She sneezed again and then blew her nose, letting out a disgusted "ew" when she pulled the tissue away. "Is your snot supposed to brownish black?" she asked as she headed towards the bathroom to throw it away.

"There was a lot of dust in that room," Nathan answered from the Chief's room.

Rolling her eyes as her partner's rather obvious observation, Audrey walked into the Chief's room and let out a low whistle. "Whoa, it looks like the dresser and the hamper exploded in here."

"What were you expecting?" Nathan asked as he waded through a sea of clothing.

"I don't know," Audrey admitted. "I figured that he liked things clean. May not have made sense to us mere humans, but at least he knew where everything was."

"That sounds like the Chief," he chuckled in response. However after he looked around the room, he sighed. "We're going to have to wash all of his clothes. I have no idea what's clean and what's dirty."

"He does have a washer and a dryer, right?" Audrey asked, mentally calculating how long they would have to spend in a Laundromat to get through everything on the floor.

"In the basement," Nathan confirmed. "We'll have to wash the sheets, too."

"Then I have an idea," Audrey said as she waded through clothes to the bed. She removed the quilt and the blankets, leaving on the sheets. After stripping the pillowcases and tossing them on to the middle of the bed, she began to gather up the clothes at her feet and tossing them on to the middle of the bed as well. She paused long enough to give Nathan a look. "Come on, give me a hand."

"What are we doing this for?" Nathan asked as he stooped to gather an armload of clothing.

"Once the laundry is in the sheets, we bundle it up and haul it down to the washer," Audrey explained as she continued to work.

"Well, it sure beats hauling down individual armloads," he noted with approval.

They worked in silence for a few minutes until all of the clothes were off of the floor. Audrey then pulled up the corners of the fitted sheet and began to bundle up the laundry, tying it off to keep anything from falling out.

"Okay, go ahead and take this down," she said as she finished the loose knot.

"Why do I have to take it down?" Nathan asked, eyebrows up in surprise at her order.

"Because he was your dad, and I'm not handling his dirty underwear any more than I have to," she retorted.

Nathan's jaw dropped a little, and then he burst out laughing at the absurdity of the statement. "Fair enough, Parker," he chuckled as he picked up the bundle from the bed and made his exit. Now that the floor was clear, Audrey lay down on the floor and peered under the bed. It was mostly clear except for a couple of duffle bags and a pair of slippers.

She pulled out the bags and the slippers and then sighed. Okay, now what? She tossed the slippers into a corner of the room and placed the duffle bags on the now stripped bed. Audrey scanned the room to determine her next target. A pair of tall dressers stood side by side. Audrey wasn't sure if anything was still in them, given that most of the clothes had been strewn about the floor, but it was worth a shot.

The dresser on the right was her first target, and she slid open the top drawer, unsure of what to expect. It was empty except for a jewelry box – made of cherry with brass knobs indicating that there were two drawers. Audrey carefully lifted the box from the drawer and sat down on the bed, contemplating opening it now or waiting until Nathan came back.

The little box was like a treasure chest, who knew what was contained within it. Curiosity ultimately won out in the end, and Audrey opened the lid and gasped softly. There was a collection of necklaces, rings and earrings, various metals and stones winking at her in the sunlight that was streaming through the window.

"First load is in." Nathan's voice floated through the door, and if Audrey had to guess, he had spoken while on the landing of the stairs. Moments later he appeared in the doorway and looked at her curiously. "What are you looking at?"

"It's a jewelry box. If I had to guess, I'd say it was your mother's," Audrey said, looking slightly guilty at being caught. "I know I should have waited for you, but I really wanted to see what was in inside."

Nathan sat down on the bed with the jewelry box between him and Audrey, cocking his head slightly so he could study the contents. "Wow, I didn't know he had kept this."

"You sound genuinely surprised," Audrey noted with faint amusement.

"The Chief wasn't the sentimental type, a fact I'm sure I'll repeat various times over the course of this weekend," Nathan reminded her. He reached into the box and plucked out a ring, an ornate work of white gold and diamonds. There was a large center stone, and on each side, two bezel-set marquise stones. Pavé round brilliants went down the sides of the band, ending right where the band curved to fit under the finger. Nathan looked at it, trying to remember the last time he had seen it.

"What is it?" Audrey asked, pulling Nathan from his memories.

"I think it was my mother's engagement ring," Nathan replied in breathless awe. "I thought she had been buried with it. I didn't realize the Chief had saved it."

Audrey gave a quick nod and then began poking around the jewelry box. She started to dig around the tray, startled when it shifted. Realizing that the tray could come out, she pulled it up to reveal several bracelets, a couple of watches, and several folded pieces of paper. "What the…?" she said softly as she gently placed the tray on the mattress behind her and reached for the letters. The papers were folded together, and the top one started with "Garland" scrawled across the top in flowing script.

While Nathan was still examining the ring and the tray behind Audrey, she read the letter, any trace of the earlier guilt erased from her face. Her eyes soaked up each word, her heart breaking a little bit more with each one, until she was blinking back tears at the signature at the bottom. Now that she had started she couldn't stop, and so Audrey moved on to the second letter that started with an affectionate, "My Dearest Boy, Nathan."

Half way through the second letter Audrey was crying, unable to stop the tears that trailed silently down her cheeks. It was then that Nathan finally tore his attention away from the ring and looked at his partner. "Parker?" he asked softly, reaching over to grab her free hand that was resting on her thigh.

She started and looked at him, and then taking her hand from his grasp, wiped at the traitorous tears on her cheeks with a sheepish smile. "Sorry," she croaked out, her voice thick with emotion. "You'll have to read these." Her eyes darted back down to paper and continued to read, while Nathan watched the various emotions play across her face. What on earth had she found?

When she finished, she rose and handed the papers to Nathan, and then silently left the room, probably in search of more Kleenex and to get the tear stains cleaned off her face. Nathan merely shrugged and then read the paper on top, surprised to see the Chief's name at the top in his mother's writing.

_Garland,_

_I know I don't have much time left, and I sincerely hope that you and Nathan will be okay without me. I know that you two don't always get along, but maybe that will change. I hate to admit it, but sometimes the boy has too much of his father in him. I realize that it is a unique challenge to raise another man's son as your own, but so far I feel that you've done a wonderful job. When I look at him I see your son, not Max's._

_Nathan is a good kid at heart, Garland, and I know that it's your influence that makes that possible. Max was never a father to Nathan, I don't think he ever really understood what it was that even makes a father. To him it was merely the fact that Nathan contained his genetic material. To you, Nathan was someone to be nurtured and educated and loved, and you've done that, even if you think you haven't. Nathan admires you, Garland, don't think that he doesn't for one second. I think he's intimidated by you, but through no fault of your own. My heart still breaks that the person Nathan associates with the word "father" is someone cold, distant and abusive. He's learning, little by little, that a father can be someone he can rely on, but it's going to take work. Promise me you won't ever give up on him. Please, Garland, I need to know that my little boy will be cared for and loved after I'm gone._

_I hate to think that I'm going to miss him growing up into a fine young man, but I know you won't let me down._

_I love you,_

_Elizabeth_

Nathan blinked at the letter and swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd been young when his mother had died. He knew that she had been sick, but he didn't know if it was sudden or gradual. There had been a lot of things that he hadn't asked his father about, his mother's death being at the top of the list. In Nathan's mind, her death had been the tipping point in his relationship with the Chief. It had been then that he felt that they had passed that point of no return, and that no matter what Nathan did, it would never be good enough.

"You need to read the next one," Audrey said quietly from the doorway. Nathan looked up at her questioningly. "I think you might find some of the answers you're looking for in there."

He furrowed his brow, but did as Audrey instructed, moving the letter addressed to his father to the back of the stack and looking down at one that was addressed to him. He started to read as Audrey sat down again on the mattress and started to go through the top drawer of the jewelry box.

_My Dearest Boy, Nathan,_

_I'm so sorry that I'm leaving you. I'm sad that I won't be there for your first girlfriend, your first date, your senior prom or your high school graduation. I won't be there when you start college and move into the dorms, to send you care packages when you get homesick. I won't be there when you find that one special woman that you want to spend the rest of your life with, or to meet your children. But I've made peace with this. Sometimes it's impossible to fight fate._

_There are a few things that you should know. First of all, if you're reading this letter, then you now know that Garland isn't really your father. Not in the biological sense, anyway. Your father is Max Hansen, someone that I'm sure you know of. He's someone the entire state of Maine knows of. Killing an entire family in cold blood gives a person notoriety, and not in a good way._

_Garland can't give you the whole story – no one in town can really give you the whole story. I'm the only one who knows it, and now it's time for you to know it, too._

_Max, Garland and I all grew up together. Max was always a bit of a loner, an outsider. Garland spent most of his time with the Teagues. I walked the line between the groups. For some reason, I gravitated towards Max. Something about him drew me to him, and we grew closer. After high school we decided to make a life together, and somehow, despite precautions, I found out that I was pregnant. I thought that Max would welcome the news – but he seemed distant, and despite that, I thought an official offer of marriage could come. I got nothing. After you were born I thought things would improve, but then the Troubles came. Max didn't respond well to the Troubles. He couldn't feel anything and he took his anger out on everything. For a while it was the dishes and the furniture, and then it was me. However, the day he took his anger out on you…that was the day I knew I had to leave. You were two years old._

_I called Garland. I hadn't completely fallen out of touch with him over the years, but there was now a space between us that hadn't existed before. He took us in, and from the start he treated you as if you were his own. Max wasn't happy that I had left him for Garland, but he really had no claim to you or me. We were never married, and in those days that meant he had to petition for parental rights, which he never did. Max Hansen had no legal claim to you, which worked well for me. It meant he couldn't hurt you anymore. Besides, it would have been stupid for him to try something, given that Garland was a respected member of the police force._

_However, despite our new life the damage had been done. The man you knew as "father," "papa," and "daddy" was cold and abusive, and sometimes explosively angry. You never opened up to Garland. You were always so cautious around him, like you expected him to hurt you or ignore you the way Max did. But Garland always loved you. To him you were the most wonderful child in the world. Hopefully now you realize that._

_The Troubles were a hard time for all of us. Neither Garland nor I expected you to have the same Trouble as your father, until that one day you broke your arm. We were at a loss. We didn't know how you'd react. You were still so young, we thought that perhaps we could reach out to you – that you could realize that the situation wasn't hopeless. Lucy Ripley was a tremendous help. I don't know what it was about her, but you liked her and trusted her implicitly. When you were with her, it was like you were a completely normal little boy again. You never told me what it was about her that drew you to her, but there must have been something. But I digress, the turning point came after the murder of the Colorado Kid._

_Max had become increasingly unstable the longer the Troubles lasted. Though there was no definitive proof that Max had killed the Colorado Kid, there seemed to be something about him that hung around the death. And then that poor family. I have little doubt that Max did it. He had become so angry at the world because he couldn't feel, he began lashing out at everyone, causing pain in others because he could no longer feel it. I believe he reached his breaking point with that family and his last shred of humanity was shattered forever. Garland did what he could to make sure that Max wouldn't hurt anyone else – and if we're lucky, he'll never leave Shawshank alive._

_I'm sorry that we've lied to you. You were so young that we felt it was best to keep up the pretense that Garland was actually your father. I truly believe that Garland is your father, and it is my sincerest wish that you see him the same way as well. Max may have allowed the biological process to have happened, but that alone does not make a father._

_I've left a few things for you. I don't know how old you are as you read this, but I want you to know that I've left you my engagement ring. There are two matching bands that go on either side of it, they make up the wedding band. Give it to a girl who's special to you, who makes you feel complete. I've also set up a college fund, which may or may not still be around. Are you in college? Out of college? I wonder what you're doing when you take a little time to read this…_

_I can't delay the inevitable, I'm afraid. The only thing I know for certain is that by the time you read this, I will be gone. I wish I could stay. I wish I could witness the amazing things you'll do with your life. But I'll always be in your heart, my dearest son, and I hope that wherever I am, I will be able to see you and be proud of you._

_I love you, Nathan. Never forget that._

_Love,_

_Mom_

Nathan's hands were shaking as he carefully folded the letter back up. He blinked a few times, his vision blurry from tears he didn't realize he was shedding, and took a shaky breath. He was vaguely aware of Audrey standing up and moving so she was in front of him, but he wasn't sure of what she was doing until she pulled him against her body in an awkward hug.

The dam broke then, and Nathan wrapped his arms around her and sobbed into her chest. She held him, gently running her hands up and down his back and rocking him. Audrey had no idea what Nathan's relationship with his mother had been like. Nathan's usual stony silence seemed even stonier if she was brought up.

Nathan cried for a good ten minutes before he finally calmed down. Pulling away from Audrey he took a few shaky breaths and looked up at her with red and puffy eyes. She pulled out a wad of tissues from her pocket and handed them to Nathan, who accepted them with an apologetic half-smile.

"Are you going to be okay?" Audrey asked quietly as Nathan dabbed at eyes.

"I think so," he replied in a hollow tone. "I hated her, you know, for leaving me alone with the Chief. I wish I had known what was in that letter sooner, then maybe things between me and the Chief…"

"Nathan, please don't waste time on the 'what ifs' and 'never weres,'" Audrey said as she sat down on the bed next to him. "It's a slippery slope you may never get off of. Obviously your mother loved you very much and wanted to stay with you, but couldn't. If you don't mind me asking, what did she die of?"

"I honestly don't know," Nathan answered sadly. "She was fine, then she was sick, and then she was…" His voice trailed off.

Audrey tried to come up with something to say, but "I'm sorry," seemed inadequate. Instead she reached out and took his hand, giving it a firm squeeze. "We should probably get back to work," she said after a few quiet minutes.

Taking a deep breath, Nathan nodded in agreement. "Of course. Uh, I'll start with the closet, if you want to keep going with the dressers."

"That works. So what do I do with what I find?" she asked.

Nathan reached for the duffle bags and gave them a quick examination. "Well, these are in good shape and I can use them. We'll put the stuff that I'll keep in these, and I'll run down the truck for boxes and garbage bags for the stuff that will be donated or tossed."

"Sounds good," Audrey said as she stood up and walked over to the dresser. "Well, I guess it's back to work. Too bad these drawers won't clean themselves."

"This is Haven, so that isn't completely implausible," Nathan noted from the doorway.

Audrey shuddered. "I suppose there are worse afflictions."

Nathan regarded her in mild amusement. "Tell me about it."

As she listened to his retreating footsteps, Audrey winced. It probably was not the best way to handle that situation, but at least they were going again, and if anything, Nathan had a better understanding of why the Chief had done what he did. It was, at the very least, a very small step forward.

Audrey would take whatever progress she could get with her taciturn partner. Progress was progress.


	3. Nathan's Boyhood Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cleaning out Nathan's boyhood room reveals hidden depths for the Chief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after "Love Machine" but before "Sparks and Recreation" and let's just pretend Chris never asked Audrey out. (To quote Adam Savage, "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" I also quote Joss Whedon: "There's a time and a place for everything; I believe it's called fan fiction.")

With the Chief's room effectively spotless, save a couple of boxes of clothing and the furniture, Nathan and Audrey moved down the hall to the remaining bedroom on the second floor.

"So this was your room growing up, wasn't it?" Audrey asked him, a mischievous glint in her blue-grey eyes as they approached the closed door.

Nathan's gaze hardened. "Yes."

"I wonder what we'll find in there," Audrey mused aloud.

Nathan turned to face his partner and spoke in a cool, detached tone. "We'll find a mattress and box spring, a dresser, and a desk. Maybe a few odds and ends I didn't take with me when I left and whatever the Chief might have shoved in there in the years between then and now."

"Okay, okay," Audrey said, holding her hands up in a gesture of defeat. "Lead on."

Nathan snorted before grabbing the handle and turning it, then pushing the door open; he took exactly two steps in before he came to a halt, his eyes darting around the room in confusion. Audrey came in behind him, squeezing between him and the wall and taking a look around. She then turned a questioning glance at her friend and partner.

"Uh…" Nathan was at a loss for words.

"You said it was going to be empty," Audrey said with a smirk in her tone. "As I recall, you said we'd find a mattress and box spring, a dresser and a desk." She made a sweeping gesture with her arm. "I think this is a little more than some abandoned furniture, Nathan."

"The Chief must have done this after I moved out," Nathan answered, having managed to recover his capacity to speak.

"Well obviously. But really, trains?" Audrey asked as she walked over to the dresser and picked up the die cast model steam engine that was on it. "Nathan, I've seen themed rooms before, but I'm pretty sure this one takes the cake."

"I swear it wasn't like this when I left," Nathan insisted, still rooted to the same spot.

"Right." Audrey looked around. The whole room was done up in train memorabilia. Prints of trains and old railroad signs decorated the walls. A couple of models were placed on shelves and on the dresser. What looked like a model kit sat on the desk in the nook, bathed in the full morning sunlight. "Let me guess, you were really into trains when you were a kid."

"I loved them. Maybe it was me rebelling against the Chief, who, like most costal Mainers, loved the sea and everything it entailed. For me it was trains, the rhythm of the wheels on the track, the distinctive whistles and horns." He shook his head as he gave a soft chuckle. "Aside from the trains, I was a pretty typical Maine kid, with hockey and the like."

"So what are we going to do with all of this?" Audrey asked as she looked around. "It seems like it would be a waste to give it all away."

"I have an empty spare bedroom I can put all of this in," Nathan shrugged.

"Are you implying that you have a fully furnished spare bedroom as well?" Audrey asked incredulously. She hadn't spent a lot of time at Nathan's house to truly know the floor plan. She knew there was an upstairs and a ground floor, but that was it.

"I have a fully furnished spare bedroom and an office down stairs, with the master bedroom and an empty room upstairs," Nathan explained. "There are only a few boxes in the empty room. We can just move all of this stuff to my place."

Audrey looked around, her lip curled in mild disdain. "And we're going to do that today?"

Nathan glanced at his watch and then looked back at Audrey. "Well, it's not even noon yet, and we've already cleaned out the storage room and the Chief's room. We could get things boxed up in here, load it into the truck, take it back to my place, get lunch, then come back and finish up here and start in on the main floor. I may save the big furniture moving until next weekend. Everything waited three weeks without incident. I can't imagine that another week is going to kill it."

"Well, seeing as it's all furniture and the like, no I can't imagine that it would kill it to wait another week. Then we can rent a moving truck. There's no way that bed is going to fit in the Bronco," Audrey said, indicating to said furniture.

Nathan gave a good natured laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go down to the truck and get more boxes for all of this. Do you mind getting started? See if there's anything in drawers or in the closet. For all I know, the Chief got me a whole wardrobe when he redid the room, and I see no point in wasting perfectly good clothing."

"Okay," Audrey said as she put the steam engine down. As Nathan walked out she opened the drawers but found nothing. Once she knew that the dresser was empty, she moved on to the closet. Sliding the door to the side, she poked her head in, but found nothing but a box on a shelf with no label and what appeared to be an athletic bag in the far corner. She pulled down the box first and set it on the bed before retrieving the bag and placing it on the floor next to the bed.

She heard Nathan's footsteps on the stairs as she carefully removed the lid from the box. It was old and starting to fall apart, and if the label on the lid was correct, she would find some interesting things.

"What did you find?" Nathan asked as he walked in with collapsed boxes tucked under his arm and a roll of packing tape and a permanent marker in hand.

"Well, it's labeled 'Nathan's Baby Box,' so perhaps I'll find some bronzed shoes and your favorite binky?" she answered cheerfully. She reached in and pulled out a ruffled, white gown. "Your Christening gown, I presume. Love the lace and the bows."

Nathan was pretty sure that he had ended up in hell. "I had no say in if I wore it or not."

Audrey then held up a photo in a tarnished silver frame with a photo of a baby wearing the Christening gown. "Oh, I know those eyes. This is a picture of you. In a dress."

Nathan didn't look nearly as amused as Audrey felt.

She sobered and sighed. "Fine, fine, I won't mock the Christening gown." She carefully folded it up and placed it and the picture on the bed, and continued to rummage around in the box. There was a pair of booties, but not bronzed. There was also a baby book, with a copy of his hospital certificate complete with tiny foot prints, the ID wristband that his mother had worn, as well as the card that had been placed on his bassinette, identifying him as Nathan Johnson. "Hey, look at this," she said, holding up the baby book. She pointed to the information card. "Your mother's maiden name was Johnson?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "So?"

"I wasn't sure if you knew or not," Audrey shrugged as she turned the page. "Awww, here you are as newborn! You look like an old man. An angry old man."

"All babies look like old men," Nathan muttered as he began to tape up the bottoms of the boxes he had brought up from the truck.

Audrey merely rolled her eyes in response. The rest of the box contained the usual baby memorabilia. There was a dingy white bear that had a metal key in the back. Audrey turned it to discover that it was a winder of a music box, the tinny tune of the Teddy Bear's Picnic floating through the room. There were also a couple of bibs, a romper, and a single coffee colored curl tied with a blue ribbon in plastic bag.

"This is your baby stuff, Nathan. All of it. I even found a baby curl," Audrey said as she carefully repacked the box and replaced the lid.

"I'll take it home with me," he answered as he moved to start taking prints and signs off of the walls.

"Fine with me," Audrey shrugged as she picked it up and put it by the door, where all of the boxes would be stacked before being hauled down to the Bronco. She then shifted her focus to the athletic bag. She didn't know much about sports, but when she pulled out a pair of child sized skates, she figured it had been Nathan's equipment bag when he had played peewee hockey. "Aww, they're cute!"

Nathan looked up from the metal railroad crossing sign he had just pulled off of the wall and gave his partner a questioning glance. She waved the skates at him and he rolled his eyes. "They're skates, Parker, hardly cute."

"But they're your skates," she reminded him as she placed them back in the bag and pulled out some pads. "Do you want to keep any of this stuff?"

"Why would I? I can't use any of it anymore," he pointed out.

"Well, no, you can't. But what if you get married and have a kid and your kid wants to play hockey?"

"I would buy them new gear. This stuff is ancient, probably not any good anymore," he noted. "And why are you insinuating that I'm going to get married and have kids?"

"Why are you insinuating that you won't?" Audrey challenged as she repacked the bag. Nathan took a deep breath before continuing to pack away items. Audrey waited patiently for him to say something, but in true Nathan fashion, he kept silent. She decided to try again. "Seriously, Nathan, you'll get married and have kids some day."

Her partner remained stubbornly silent as he began to pack up the models on the dresser.

"Nathan, just because you're troubled it doesn't mean that you can't have a normal life," she informed him. At his glare, she amended, "Well, normal-ish."

Nathan stilled, tilting his face heaven-ward and mentally counting to ten before he snapped at Audrey. She was here because she wanted to be, and if he were to be completely honest, he was thankful for her presence. He certainly wouldn't have found his mother's letters and learned more about his past without her. He also knew that he would have never been able to deal with what those letters said without Audrey being by his side. "Parker, I can't feel anything but you. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be in a relationship with someone you can't feel?"

Audrey crossed her arms against her chest and started to chew on the inside of cheek. She had supposed that it hadn't mattered, but clearly it bothered Nathan more than he had let on. "Was that why you were moving so slow with Jess?"

"Part of it," he answered.

"There's more?" she asked, gazing at him curiously.

He stopped packing so he could look at her. He supposed he was at a crossroads in his life. He could tell her that he loved her and see if she immediately accused him of liking her only because he could feel her touch, or he could continue to quash those feelings and say that Jess had been jealous of their partnership, which was true in a manner of speaking.

"Jess…thought that there might have been more to our relationship," he said after a lengthy pause.

"Meaning…?" Audrey prompted.

"The night that you were being attacked by the Dark Man at the station, Jess and I were, uh…"

"You two were finally making it past first base," Audrey supplied.

"Right," he answered flatly. "Anyway, she wanted me to ignore your call."

"Good thing you didn't," Audrey noted with the barest hint of a smile on her face.

"Well, she said something right before I picked up, that it was you, it was always you. I didn't realize it at the time, but what she meant that was that between the two of you, I'd always choose you first. You're my best friend, so I suppose in a way that makes sense, but I think she thought that I might have had other feelings towards you," Nathan explained. It was the truth, with very careful omissions.

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you have other feelings towards me? More than just friendship, maybe?"

Nathan hadn't been able to think about anything else for a while now. Of course he realized after Jess left that his feelings for Audrey ran deeper and stronger than just friendship, the fact that he could feel her touch was only a bonus. However it was a precarious place he was in. Dating his partner was a bad idea no matter how he looked at it, but if he knew his partner, and he did, she wouldn't leave him alone until she got the full story. He swallowed the lump in his throat and then crossed the short distance to where Audrey was standing, looming over her. She craned her neck so she could look him in the eye, taking only one slight step back so she didn't hurt herself.

He reached out and grabbed her right hand, cradling and caressing it in his. He could feel her warmth – her palms were warmer than her fingers – against his skin, his nerves suddenly flaring to life. He then reached out with his right hand and gently caressed her cheek before threading his fingers through her hair and gently sliding his hand down until it rested along her neck. In one fluid movement, he pulled her closer, angling his head so his mouth fit against hers, the nerves on his lips rejoicing at the contact.

Audrey, on the other hand, was taken off guard. She had grown used to Nathan touching her. She knew that when he was feeling particularly upset about something, be it his trouble or Duke's constant teasing about not being a real boy, he'd touch Audrey, feel her skin under his fingers and remember that he was real. But kissing? That was a new step.

Not that it was a bad kiss. In fact, if both parties had to rate the kiss it would easily be number on their respective lists. Nathan hadn't been kidding when he said that the lips were the most sensitive part of a person's body, probably only rivaled by more intimate organs.

Nathan finally managed to pull away from Audrey and her intoxicating lips. He was breathing heavily, his eyes hooded and an expression on his face that was completely unreadable. Audrey, however, was standing still, stunned at the recent turn of events and her brain feebly trying to process the most amazing kiss she'd ever had in her life.

Feeling like a total heel and thinking quick on his feet on how to best recover his now presumed shattered relationship with Audrey, Nathan began to apologize. "Parker, I'm sorr-"

He was cut off when she tackled him to the bed, lips pressed against his in another searing kiss. She straddled his hips as her mouth assaulted his, prompting him to open so she could deepen the kiss. Nathan acquiesced to her silent request, brushing is tongue against hers and shivering at the rush of feeling that coursed through is body. She then moved so she could kiss along his jaw and then down his neck.

Nathan let out a groan as he drowned in sensory overload. He could smell Audrey – her bodywash and shampoo – and taste Audrey and feel Audrey and it getting really hard to function much more beyond just laying there and enjoying it. But when she pulled her lips away from his skin so she could shift her attentions to the other side of his face and neck, Nathan managed to recover enough of his senses to grab Audrey by the wrists and then use the rest of his body to roll them so she was pinned beneath him. Taking a deep breath, he hovered over her for a moment before gently laying down on one side of her, his forehead resting in the crook of her neck. "Hold on," he managed to gasp out.

"Nathan?" she said questioningly. Her mind was suddenly racing, wondering if she had done something wrong, or worse, hurt him.

"I just need a moment, Parker…Audrey. I'm…a little overwhelmed." It sounded so lame to his own ears, but it was the truth.

"Oh, God, Nathan, I'm sorry. I didn't even realize that it might be too much too fast for you," she said, immense guilt in her tone.

He shook his head against her shoulder. "It's okay, I really didn't mind. But…"

"What are we doing?" she finished.

"Well, making out like teenagers comes to mind," Nathan supplied as he rolled away from her, losing the blessed contact with her.

"That certainly describes what we were doing," Audrey agreed with a chuckle.

"Audrey…I don't want to ruin our friendship."

She gave a brief nod of understanding. "I know."

"And I like you. I'm pretty sure that I've liked you as more than just a friend since before Jess. I don't want you to think that the only reason why is because I can feel you," he continued, the words uncharacteristically tumbling from his mouth before he could stop them. "I've never wanted you to feel like I was using you, because I'm not. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I were using you…"

"Nathan, you're rambling," Audrey informed him. She turned her head so she could look at him. "I understand that this is uncharted territory for both of us, and I know that most establishments disapprove of co-workers dating, especially if they're partners."

"We probably shouldn't do this, then," Nathan said quietly.

"No, we probably shouldn't," Audrey agreed. "But maybe it'll be worth it."

"I don't know if I'm ready," Nathan admitted, closing his eyes. "It's been so long…"

"Maybe we should ease into it, then?" she suggested. "Hang out together, occasionally grab a meal together?"

"We already do that," he pointed out.

"We could hold hands."

"We also already do that. Whenever I start feeling insecure about my trouble, I grab your hand and hold on until I'm ready to let go."

"So you just want things to stay the same?"

"Well, maybe we could kiss sometimes?"

Audrey burst out laughing. He sounded like an insecure school boy when he had said it. "Yeah, okay. I think I can live with that. You're one hell of a kisser, Wuornos."

"So are you, Parker, so are you." Propping himself up on his elbows, Nathan looked around the room and let out a small groan. "I suppose we should get back to packing things up, huh?"

"We probably should," Audrey replied before her stomach let out a little gurgle. "And then we should get lunch."

Nathan chuckled as he rolled off the bed and then offered Audrey a hand. She grasped it and he pulled her to her feet and then against him, hugging her tightly. "Have I mentioned that I'm glad you're here? Not because you're helping me pack things up, but because you're good company."

Audrey grinned into his chest. "No, but I'm glad that you're not mad at me. When I first decided to come over, I had the horrible thought that maybe you wouldn't want me here."

"I like spending time with you, Audrey," he said as he pulled back so he could look her in the eye. He then leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Let's get back to work and get you fed before you waste away into nothing."

"Oh har har," she said, picking up a box and heading to the desk. But by the silent shaking of her shoulders, Nathan knew she was laughing to herself.


	4. The Guest Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cleaning the guest room leaves time for flirting. And admiring Nathan's...assets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glossing over cleaning the bathrooms, because honestly, they're not that exciting. Besides, I don't think I could have gotten a whole chapter out of that.

After Nathan's old room had been cleaned and all that remained were empty and bare pieces of furniture, Audrey and Nathan began the arduous task of hauling the packed boxes down to the Bronco. Everything that Nathan planned to take back to his house was stacked carefully into the back seat while everything that would be donated was packed into the back. Audrey equated it to Tetris without the Russian folk music, which Nathan started to hum the second after she said as much.

She pinched his arm in retaliation and was rewarded with a sharp yelp of pain and an accusing, "Hey!" from her partner.

After the Bronco was packed, they headed to Goodwill to drop off their first round of donations, with the promise of more to come, especially in terms of house wares. The two employees on shift, whom Nathan greeted as Brenda and Sal, offered their condolences for the loss of his father again, which he received with a stoic nod and a murmured, "Thank you." He stalked back out to the Bronco as quickly as he could, leaving Audrey to dash after him.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked as she climbed into the cab.

"I don't know if I'll ever be okay. They say that the pain lessens as time goes on, but I'm having a hard time believing it," Nathan replied as he started the truck and pulled out of the parking space.

They made the rest of the trip to his house in silence, Audrey fully aware that there was nothing she could say to her partner that he hadn't heard before. It was better that they rode in silence, speaking only when they arrived at his house and she asked where he wanted the boxes. After unloading them in his living room, they headed to the kitchen where Nathan made sandwiches and poured iced tea. They chattered mindlessly as they ate, discussing the various goings on around town, speculating about Evi and Duke's relationship, and what would happen when Vince and Dave discovered social media and networking. The idea of the Teagues using Twitter or Facebook was extremely amusing, especially since Dave's van pretty much qualified for the junkyard and he insisted on using film to shoot his photos. One of these days it would get him in trouble. Nathan commented that he hoped he was off that day, much to Audrey's amusement.

After lunch was cleaned up, they stocked up on more boxes and garbage bags and headed back to the Chief's house. "So, where are we starting next?" Audrey asked on the ride over.

"I figure the guest room and office is what we'll get through today. We lucked out, there wasn't a lot in the storage room so it only took us forty-five minutes or so to go through everything and clean it."

"Isn't there a bathroom upstairs that should be cleaned out, and the utility and linen closets?" Audrey asked, wondering why Nathan wanted to start in downstairs when they hadn't finished upstairs.

"I'll take care of it at a later date. I really don't think you want to clean out the Chief's bathroom. He was…not the best housekeeper," Nathan explained. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Me? I grew up with it, I can handle it. But I'm not going to send anyone I like into clean it. I wouldn't even send someone I didn't like." He emphasized the horror with a shudder.

"I'll take your word for it, then," Audrey noted as she leaned against the door. "Did we want to start in the guest room or the office?"

"We can start in the guest room. I'll stay late working on the office – I'm sure there's a lot of paper work I'll have to go through and there's no point in having you do that," Nathan said as they pulled into the Chief's driveway.

They got out of the car in silence, Nathan and Audrey each grabbing several flattened boxes and a roll of tape before going back into the house. Nathan led the way to the guest room, which was located at the back of the house. Audrey noted that they headed through the house as if they were going to stairs, but passed by the stairs and hung a left at the small hallway that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

The guest room was nautically themed, a fact that didn't even phase Audrey at this point. She tossed her empty boxes on the bed and looked around. Aside from a few prints on the wall and a model ship on the armoire, the room was fairly devoid of décor. "Kind of like a hotel room," Audrey noted as she began to tape up the bottom of a box.

Nathan shrugged as he checked the closet for any boxes that the Chief might have stashed in it. "I'm pretty sure that it hasn't changed since my mom did it years ago."

"Did your mom decorate the whole house? Except what was your room," she amended.

"Mom was something of an interior decorator. She wanted to start her own design business, but then she started to get sick," Nathan explained as he pulled his head out of the empty closet. He headed to the window and smacked the heavy curtain, sending a cloud of dust into the air. That, paired with the rather stale smell in the room, was proof enough that the Chief probably hadn't used the room since the last Wuornos family reunion going on five years ago. "And I'm guessing the last time this room got used was when the out of town family came for the reunion almost five years ago."

"There are more members of Wuornos clan?" Audrey asked in surprise.

"The Chief has some cousins and an uncle near Portland," he replied as he began to pull down the draperies and fold them up. "My mother's parents retired to Florida years ago."

"I take it you aren't particularly clannish," Audrey surmised as she began to strip the bed and pack away the sham covers and accent pillows.

"We really only see each other when someone decides that it's been too long since the last family reunion, in which case we're all reminded of why it's been so long since the last one," Nathan explained with a soft chuckle and wry smile.

"I will admit that this is some pretty gorgeous furniture," Audrey said as she ran her fingers over the footboard of the bed. All of the furniture was done in a country style. The oak was simply carved, with a panel design on the armoire, footboard and headboard, as well as sturdy arches on the top drawers of the dresser and on the mirror above the dresser. There were also matching night stands, one on each side of the bed.

"You can have it if you want it," Nathan told her.

Audrey shrugged. "I would, but I don't think it really goes with the rest of my apartment. I have this whole Bohemian thing going for me. Why ruin it with a beautifully handcrafted oak bedroom set?"

Nathan laughed in response. "So what do you suggest we do with it, Parker?"

"Craigslist would probably be your best bet. You can offer the whole set for one price or sell the pieces individually," she suggested. "You can even write up a really snappy ad, 'Beautiful bedroom set, barely used. In fact, so barely used there's even a fine layer of dust on it to prove it!' And then you can put in parentheses, 'Don't worry, if you decide to buy it, we'll polish it up to look like it came straight from the showroom.'"

Nathan was really laughing now, leaning up against the wall, shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress it. It was a lovely sound, and one that Audrey hoped to hear more of. "I'll see about Craigslist. I'll probably also put an ad in the Haven Herald, but probably not as entertaining as whatever ends up on Craigslist."

"I'll write the Craigslist ad if you want," Audrey offered. "That way it's snappy. 'Country chic meets nautical sensibilities! The best of both words, and that way both you and your significant other can be satisfied. See, marital strife really can be resolved with a little retail therapy!'"

"Okay, Parker, that's enough. Let's just get through packing all of the bedding and then get the room cleaned up. There's enough dust in here I'm pretty sure anyone with asthma would have an attack taking one step in here," he said between chuckles. He only hoped that the rest of the rooms were so easy to clean out. The Chief hadn't exactly been one for "stuff," and his perpetual habit of getting rid of whatever he didn't use meant that cleaning out his house was easier than expected.

Of course, Nathan did wonder what was in the basement. There were still Christmas decorations that he hadn't seen in ages, and surely those had to be down stairs.

"Crap," Nathan said as he paused, half-way reaching up to remove the valance from the window.

"What's wrong?" Audrey asked as she tried to stuff the quilt from the bed onto the blankets on the bottom of the box.

"I'll be right back. I need to change over laundry," Nathan grumbled as he stalked from the room like a chastised child.

Audrey snickered at her partner before going back to trying to shove the quilt into the box. After getting creative with the folding and stuffing, she closed it up and moved on to the sheets. She hummed softly to herself as she stripped the sheets from the bed and carefully folded them up and placed them into the nearest empty box. It wasn't hard work, just mundane, but that didn't change the fact that it had to be done. The faint scent of fabric softener was still on the sheets so she knew that they had been clean when put on the bed, so she didn't worry about sending them down to be washed.

She was attempting to maneuver the mattress so she could get to the dust ruffle when Nathan returned. He stopped at the door and studied his partner as she tried to lift up the mattress enough to where she could pull the dust ruffle off, but it always managed to get caught on something. It would have been much easier with a second person to help, but Nathan was rather enjoying listening to her colorful curses at the bed to step in and lend a hand.

Suddenly Audrey stilled, slowly straightened her back, and spun on her heel to glare at her partner, who was casually leaning against the doorframe, a look of admiration on his face. Had he been checking out her ass? "You know, you could have stepped in to help me at any time, Nathan."

He shrugged. "I could have, but it wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining." His bright blue eyes were dancing with laughter at this point.

She narrowed her gaze at him before marching the short distance to where he stood. She assessed all six feet two inches of him (plus another inch or so for the soles of his boots), before reaching out and yanking his tee shirt from his jeans. She then reached under his shirt and ghosted her fingers along his torso, causing him to let out a very un-masculine giggle before sliding down the doorframe to the floor. A look of pure triumph graced Audrey Parker's face as she looked down at her prone partner. "Oh ho! The invincible Nathan Wuornos is ticklish!" she gloated.

Nathan protectively crossed his arms against his core. He hadn't been able to feel for so long he honestly couldn't remember if he had been ticklish before the Troubles came back. "Audrey," he whined in a very un-Nathan-like manner. She merely smirked at him before reaching down the front of his shirt to dance her fingers across his collar bone, causing him to ball up and squirm in a desperate, if futile, attempt to get away from his partner. "That's not fair!"

"All's fair in love and war, Wuornos!" she crowed as she continued her relentless assault. Being the only person he could feel had its advantages. She was the only person who could reduce him to a giggling mass on the floor. She pulled back and stood over him, hands on her hips as she fixed a mean glare down at him. "So, are you going to help me remove the dust ruffle?"

Breathing heavily, Nathan looked up at Audrey and noted how the light shining through her blond hair made it look like she had a halo. Audrey Parker, his personal angel. However he pulled himself from those thoughts and sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll lift up the mattress, you pull off the dust ruffle."

"Thank you," Audrey said smugly as she stepped away from him.

Nathan tilted his head back against the wall and muttered a soft prayer to whomever was listening that his partner wouldn't get any ideas and continue to torture him in a way that only she could. And torture him she would, if she thought it would give her the upper hand. As it was she had already resorted to pinching him or lightly flicking his ear if he irritated her. He hated to think what would happen if she started tickling him in order to get him to do what she wanted.

"Nathan, are you going to sit there and sulk or are you going to help me?" she asked as she turned to face him, an arch stare on her face.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Nathan mumbled as he stood up. He made his way to the foot of the bed where he reached down and lifted up the mattress while Audrey scrambled under it in order to pull the dust ruffle free. He was tempted to drop the mattress on her briefly, but seeing as she was the only person who could inflict pain on him, he quickly dropped the notion from his mind and patiently waited until she moved free of the mattress to drop it.

"Now, was that so hard?" she asked as she started to fold up the dust ruffle.

"No, but it was time spent that I could have been doing something else," he informed her.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" she challenged as she tossed the dust ruffle into the same box with the shams and matching throw pillows. She frowned for a moment before removing the quilt from the box of blankets and tossing it in with the rest of the matching bed set.

"I don't know, getting the curtains down?" he supplied.

Audrey looked at him, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Wow, I thought it might have been something important."

He rather liked her sarcastic side. It was something they shared, a mutual love of sarcasm. It tended to be lost on most of the people of Haven, excluding a few choice residents, and they could always snark back and forth when thing started getting a little too crazy for them. So he smiled at her and enjoyed the flustered look that crossed her face.

"I'm going to tackle the linen closet now. I'm pretty sure I can get all of the sheet sets into one box," she said as she hefted up the mostly empty box and carried it into the hallway.

Nathan hid his look of pleasure at his ability to cause Audrey discomfort. For the most part she was all about keeping it cool and not getting ruffled, and the fact that he could get under her skin? Well, it evened the playing field in a way. She could inflict pain, he could get under her skin. While she busied herself with packing away sheets that had long sat unused in the downstairs linen closet, Nathan removed the curtains, debating if he should take them out and toss them over the laundry line and try to beat some of the dust out of them or just pack them up. Realizing that in a small town like Haven not beating the dust out the draperies would most likely earn him the stink eye, he grabbed the box with the draperies and started for the back door.

"Where are you going?" Audrey asked the minute he was in the hallway.

"I need to beat the drapes."

Audrey bit her lip in an attempt to stifle snicker at her partner's rather casual comment. As if beating draperies were an everyday occurrence for him. "Do you have something to beat the drapes with?" she managed to ask, keeping the laughter from bubbling up.

"There should be a badminton racket in the garage that should work just fine," he shrugged.

"Because using it for just badminton would be lame," she noted with a slight smile.

"Everything should have multiple uses, even badminton rackets," Nathan agreed with a grin.

"Well, if you finish with the drapes, I'll finish packing up the sheets and then dust and vacuum the guest room. Sound fair?" she asked.

Nathan gave a quick nod. "Sounds fair to me."

"Excellent. Also, I'll watch you from the window, and if your form is poor, I'll be coming out to help you," she informed him as he headed towards the back door. She watched him walk away, admiring how his jeans fit his backside with a dopy grin until she realized that she was burning daylight checking out her partner's ass.

"Get a grip, Parker," she chastised herself. "This is not the time to be noticing just how nice Nathan's ass looks in those jeans."

Taking a couple of deep breaths, she again returned her focus to the task at hand – packing up sheets and towels that smelled slightly musty due to a lack of use. Once the closet was emptied of its contents, she headed upstairs to grab the vacuum cleaner and the bucket of cleaning supplies so she could tackle the guest room.

She managed to stay focused on her cleaning until she started cleaning the windows. The one that faced the side yard was no problem, but the one that faced the backyard, and the clothes line Nathan had hung the drapes on in order to beat them, was the issue. Again she stared at him as he worked, but this time instead of admiring the fit of his jeans, she started to contemplate their relationship.

Something between them had clicked almost immediately. They quickly established a rapport and a friendship, but sometimes there was a shift in the dynamic. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to have more to their relationship. She was pretty sure that he wondered the same thing. All that talk to her about lips being the most sensitive part of the body and asking about the nearly lip kiss may have been his way of testing the waters with her, to see if she was open to the idea of perhaps progressing in their relationship. And she, in true Audrey Parker fashion, had been completely oblivious to it.

Nathan turned to look at the house and Audrey quickly ducked away from the window, leaning up against the wall, flushed from head to toe. "Stop acting like a love sick school girl, Parker!" she snapped at herself. She took several steadying breaths before getting started on the dusting, and she was actually glad that the bedroom set was so massive.

Dusting the whole set would give her plenty of time to get her mind off what she'd like to do to Nathan and back on cleaning.


	5. The Home Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cleaning out the Chief's office reveals more hidden depths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter with a lot of speculation about what the Chief was doing to help the Troubled.

When Audrey swung the door to the office open, she expected the worst. Paperwork strewn about the room, perhaps pinned to a cork board with red strings running between the pins, showing how they were connected. She supposed she was expecting it to look like one of those rooms from television or the movies, where the brilliant but crazy person was cracking a code, either real or imagined, and their entire room was covered in paper and string and random scribbles that made no sense to anyone but the person who wrote them.

Naturally she felt disappointment when she found that the office was effectively spotless, save three weeks worth of dust on the furniture. The venetian blinds were closed, keeping out the sunlight, casting an eerie feeling over the room that the Chief had obviously spent the most time in.

"Audrey?" a voice asked behind her, causing her to jump.

Placing a hand on her chest, she spun to face Nathan, a glare on her face. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" she scolded.

Nathan merely smirked at her.

"I have to admit, I'm shocked that this room is so clean," she confessed. "After the Chief's bedroom, I was terrified that this room would be an avalanche of paperwork."

Nathan chuckled as he went to the nearest window and opened the blind, allowing a flood of sunlight into the room. Audrey looked around and took stock in what she saw. There wasn't any décor, to speak of, save a couple of watercolor paintings of what appeared to be downtown Haven. In the far corner was an L desk, with one edge of it flush against the wall, while the other faced the door. There was a hutch on the side of the desk along the wall, a few files stacked neatly in the small shelves below the cabinets. A sleek computer sat in the corner, and Audrey guessed that the desk had storage for the tower and keyboard in its bowels. There was also a four-in-one printers and a phone tucked away under the hutch. On the wall opposite the desk were two medium sized filing cabinets. The remaining free wall had a couple of chairs pushed up against it, underneath a combination cork board and white board. Both were devoid of any notes, written or printed, as if the Chief knew that his end was coming soon and that he didn't want to leave anything unfinished.

"Is there anything in the closet?" Audrey asked and Nathan double backed to the closet and poked his head in.

"There are some filing boxes, but other than that, it's empty," he called from inside.

"So, where do we start? Do we even go through the paper work, or do we box it up and truck it over to your place?" she asked as he moved back to face her.

Nathan dragged his hand down his face, stopping on his chin. He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, though Audrey realized he probably didn't even know he was doing it. She waited patiently for her partner to determine the best course of action.

"We can just take those filing boxes back to my place. And if there's anything in the desk and filing cabinets, we'll box those up and take them over, too. The Chief might have something about the Troubles in his private files. And I really want to keep these out of the Rev's hands," Nathan said, his voice low and serious.

"Right, I think it's best that we get this stuff taken care as soon as possible. If the Rev finds out that your father had anything pertaining to the Troubles, he might try to seize them and use them in his crusade against the cursed," Audrey said, using her hands to put air quotes around the last word. She really hated that the Rev felt that those who had Troubles were cursed by God and had to be saved using hateful and self righteous tactics. The Other Audrey, having spent time in an orphanage run by nuns and in a private Catholic school, was well versed in the Good Book and in all the ways it could interpreted. Nothing angered her more than those who twisted the word of God to suit their own, narrow minded views.

Nathan started to pull the boxes from closet and stack them up in the hallway so he could then pack them up in the Bronco. Audrey headed to the desk to go through the hutch, pulling down a couple of tan file folders. She opened the unlabeled one on top, her eyes scanning over the document within. There was a name and an address, and then a small paragraph below it. Her brow furrowed as she read, before her lips parted in a silent gasp as realization dawned on her.

"Nathan?" she said, pulling his partner away from his work of pulling out the files from the cabinet and putting them into empty boxes. "I think you should see this."

He straightened and then came around to where Audrey was standing, files in hand. She passed them off to him before she sat down in the standard rolling chair, leaning against the arm rest and resting her cheek on her fingers. When Nathan finished reading the file, he closed it up and put it down on the desk. "Do you think all of the files are of Troubled people?"

"Maybe," Audrey replied. "What do you think it means, though? What would the Chief need with files on Troubled people, though?"

"He could have been trying to help them," Nathan shrugged. Half the things that the Chief had done were still a mystery to him.

"But how? What could the Chief have done?" Audrey asked.

"The answer could be in the files. Maybe there's something on the computer?" Nathan asked, indicating to the machine.

"There could be," Audrey agreed, but she made no movement to start it up and start looking. When she finally realized what Nathan wanted her to do, she sighed. "Later, Nathan. Let's just get everything boxed up and packed into the Bronco. You can take the time to go through these files at home."

He took a deep breath, slightly put off that Audrey had so quickly shut down his impromptu investigation. "Could you get some boxes from the living room?" Nathan asked, making a point to show that he was ready to keep packing.

Audrey gave him a look, but rose from the chair and headed to the living room anyway. Once she was in the hall, Nathan slid into the office chair and opened the small cabinet with the tower and was about to hit the power button when he heard Audrey call out, "And if you turn on the computer I'm going to bring the pain. Really Nathan, it's not worth it to anger the one person who can inflict pain!"

He really hated his partner's psychic tendencies sometimes. With a sigh he stood up and headed back to the file cabinet to resume the packing of files. He was in the process of moving the hanging folders into boxes when Audrey returned, but given how focused he was on his work, she knew that he had decided that he wanted to know what was on the computer now and was trying to hide that from her.

Not that she could blame him, she was curious to know exactly what the Chief had known about the Troubles, but she also knew how she and Nathan operated. They'd turn on the computer and go down the proverbial rabbit hole and she knew that they probably wouldn't surface again until two or three in the morning. Of course no one in Haven would believe that they were just doing paper work, unless paper work was now a euphemism for sweaty, passionate, monkey sex.

Reclaiming her seat at the Chief's desk, Audrey began to carefully gather up files and place them into the file box. The temptation to read through each file folder before she put it in the box was tempting, but she would always remind herself that if she did, she'd be going down the rabbit hole and she would have no idea when, or if, she could leave Wonderland. Instead she focused on the fact that all of the files were neatly labeled with a name. She knew enough about the Troubles to know that they ran in families, so perhaps the Chief had spent the last thirty years or so cataloguing the families of Haven along with the Trouble that plagued them.

"What do you think the Chief was doing with all of these files?" Nathan muttered to no one in particular.

"Cataloging the Troubles?" Audrey suggested, voicing her thoughts from the last five minutes. "All of the files I've packed up so far are labeled with a family name, except the one I showed you."

Nathan stopped so he could look at his partner. His eyebrows were knitted in a thoughtful expression as he tried to process the contents of the file cabinet. "So you think that the Chief was listing every single family in Haven and if they had a Trouble?"

"It makes sense," Audrey argued. "The one thing we know for sure about the Troubles is that they run in families. Maybe it skips a generation, maybe it's passed from one family member to another, maybe the whole family has it, but it's always passed along family lines."

"I suppose so," Nathan agreed, but he sounded hesitant. "What what about people like Louis Pufhal? He was born in the UK and moved to Haven in the late nineties."

"You can't seriously believe that the town being named 'Haven' is some sort of cosmic coincidence, do you?" Audrey said. "A haven is defined as a port, or in more modern terms, a place that is safe and peaceful that also offers refuge and asylum. I think that Haven's founders were Troubled, tossed out of wherever they were born, and formed a safe community in the New World where they could live in peace and without fear of persecution."

"And now you have people like the Rev who have come in from the outside and are shattering the very principles the town was founded on," Nathan finished, the full impact of Edmund Driscoll's crusade hitting him in the chest like sack of potatoes. A very large sack of potatoes.

"Exactly," she agreed, leaning back in the chair and staring at the blank cork-board. "The Chief must have been trying to reestablish the haven aspect of Haven, but the Rev is powerful and has a lot of followers, blind followers."

"The most dangerous kind," Nathan noted as he rose to his feet. "He talks about his parishioners as if they were sheep, and for all intents and purposes, they are."

"Sheeple," Audrey noted.

Her partner raised her eyebrows at her. "Sheeple?"

"I got it from a webcomic," she explained with a dismissive wave of the hand, hoping Nathan would drop it.

"The Rev is blindly leading his parishioners in to a war they are no way prepared for," Nathan said, continuing on the train of thought they had been on.

"And the Chief was working covertly with the Troubled and their families to get them to control their abilities so they wouldn't be targeted," Audrey finished. "It makes sense. Most people with Troubles just want to live normally, and if they're fearing for their lives because the Rev and his goons are going to be banging in doors in the middle of the night, they're going to be anything but calm and peaceful."

"Anyone who feels threatened is going to fight back," Nathan sighed, "special abilities or no. And most of the people don't even know what their powers are until something triggers them. The Rev is proposing genocide to stop them."

"Why am I suddenly picturing him with a toothbrush mustache and draped in swastikas?" Audrey grunted in disgust.

"Because the image fits?" Nathan supplied. "Let's face it, if he could pack them off to death camps, he would."

"Well, let's get the rest of the files packed up and then we can call it a night," Audrey sighed. "All of this speculating is making my head hurt."

Nathan chuckled as he returned to packing boxes. "I'll buy you dinner at the Gull tonight."

"And booze. You owe me booze for some of the things I've gone through today," Audrey added.

With a nod and a laugh, Nathan agreed. "Right. Booze. Lots and lots of booze."


	6. The Kitchen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the kitchen, Nathan remembers his childhood with the Chief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "How do you make cleaning a kitchen interesting?" was the question I kept asking myself as I wrote this chapter. Frankly, writing a scene about scrubbing bathrooms or a kitchen seems boring, and trying to draw from my own experience really made it boring. Hopefully this works.

Audrey pulled herself out of bed with a massive yawn and a stretch, followed by a grimace at the pain that shot through her muscles. Odd, it hadn't felt like she had done a lot of work with Nathan the day before, but from the way her muscles protested as she got out of bed, the impact of everything that she and Nathan had accomplished the day before finally became real.

After a hot shower, a bagel and a cup of coffee, she headed over to the Chief's house, where she found Nathan waiting for her on the front steps. He handed her a cup of coffee from her favorite café before unlocking the door and allowing Audrey to enter.

"So what's the plan for today, beyond lots of painkiller," Audrey asked before sipping her coffee, glad that she had more. She had a feeling that she'd need it to get through the rest of the day.

Nathan let out a good natured chuckle. "We'll take care of the rest of the main floor. So, the sun room, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen."

Audrey pivoted on her heel to face her partner, a curious look on her face. "What about the bathrooms?"

With a yawn, Nathan answered her. "I cleaned them last night. I wasn't kidding when I said that I wouldn't send anyone that I liked into them. Well, the one downstairs wasn't bad, but the upstairs one? Be glad you never turned on a light."

She nodded. The tissues had been just inside the door, and she had simply reached in and grabbed a handful without actually going in. "Okay, so the bathrooms are done. So that just leaves what you listed off. Awesome."

"There's also the basement," Nathan amended.

"Full basement? Half-basement?" Audrey asked, dreading what could possibly be down there.

"Full. There shouldn't be a lot of stuff down there. My mom had a sewing and craft room down there, and at one point it served as a den when my dad would invite friends over to watch hockey or football, but honestly, I didn't really poke around when I was down there. I did the laundry. That was it."

With the bathrooms taken care of, that was two rooms Audrey didn't have to worry about. She was still wary about the basement, though. She glanced around the living room, biting down on her lower lip as she tried to determine the best place to start the day. "Where did you want to start?"

"I was thinking the kitchen," Nathan answered as he rubbed the back of his head. "Then we'll just work counter clockwise. Move on to the dining room, then the sun room, and we can finish the day with the living room."

"Is there really that much stuff in those four rooms? We got through five yesterday."

Nathan shook his head. "I doubt it, but I'm sure there will be a lot of debating on if something should be saved or given away or thrown out. I was never a good judge of when something was worn out."

Audrey raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. She merely shrugged and headed back to the kitchen.

The walls of the kitchen had been painted a soft, sunshine yellow, with white cabinets that were dingy with a film of dirt and most likely grease. The appliances were probably twenty years out of date, and the white Formica countertop had seen better days. Audrey cringed at the layer of grime on everything. "Ew."

Nathan let out a discouraging snort. "Yeah."

"So do we start cleaning the grime or do we clear out the cabinets?" Audrey asked as she opened the one closest to her. It appeared that there were several unused pots in it, but it was hard to tell. There was a lot shoved into it.

"Let's start with the cabinets," Nathan said, scanning the kitchen.

They worked in silence for a while until Audrey asked a question out of the blue. "What kind of a cook was the Chief?"

Nathan stopped fighting with the Tupperware he was trying to extract from his cabinet of choice and turned to face his friend and partner. "I…what?"

"Was he the kind who spent hours trying to get the perfect roast turkey for Thanksgiving, or did he end up setting off the smoke alarm every time he attempted something more complex than microwaving something?" she clarified.

There came a rather undignified snort of repressed laughter as Nathan went back to the Tupperware. "He had his dishes," he responded with a fond chuckle. "Mostly bachelor type foods; single dish casseroles that could feed us for a week. When he tried anything more complicated than two or three dishes at a time, there was a hazard to all involved."

"So, simple things?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah, simple things. About the most complex he got was the Easter ham. That was always his dish, even when my mom was alive," Nathan explained. "Though, he was pretty good at making pancakes."

Audrey paused for a moment to mull over Nathan's last statement. "Pancakes?"

"Was it something I said?" he said into the silence that followed Audrey's question.

"The Chief made pancakes?" The fact that the Chief had made Nathan's favorite food had to mean something. With the two there never seemed to be a coincidence.

"I suppose that was one of the few things that kept us from completely hating each other," Nathan mused.

"Did he have a special recipe or something?" Audrey asked as she finally managed to extract several pots from the cabinet. She wrinkled her nose at the fine layer of dust on them before taking the time to inspect each piece to see if they were in good enough condition to donate.

"Nah, he used a premade mix. There was one time I had the flu, though, and I didn't want to eat anything but pancakes. Sadly, we were out of mix."

Audrey stopped so she could listen to her partner's tale.

"So the Chief called everyone he could think of to try and get a pancake recipe, because we had all of the ingredients. I was so sick he couldn't leave me alone, not even for a quick trip to the store." Nathan's body stilled as he lost himself in the memory. "I don't know why he didn't think to call the Teagues and ask if they could get him some pancake mix. He was probably frazzled from having a sick kid. The man could be cool as a cucumber when there was some sort of crisis with armed men making outrageous demands, but the minute I came down with a cold, the man came undone."

"He must have really cared," Audrey said softly. "I can't remember, at least in Audrey Parker's memories, a time when someone was so worried about me that they couldn't function."

With a steadying breath, Nathan continued. "Anyway, he made pancake batter from scratch. My guess is that he finally managed to track down someone's family recipe. They weren't the best pancakes I've ever eaten, but I knew that he had worked hard to make them for me. There was a dusting of flour down the front of his shirt and flecks of batter in his hair."

There was something amusing about the image of the usually unflappable Chief with flour on his clothes and pancake batter in his hair, probably flushed from activity and a stressed out expression on his face. It didn't seem possible, and yet Audrey knew that it was entirely plausible. Few things had ever rattled the Chief quite like anything involving Nathan. As awkward as their relationship had been, it had been obvious that the Chief had cared about the boy he had taken in as his own son. Audrey giggled to herself as she tried to imagine the Chief making pancakes from scratch for his son.

"Something funny?" Nathan asked, his voice cool and even.

"Just trying to picture the Chief with flour on his shirt and batter in his hair," Audrey replied with a grin.

"It was something else," Nathan admitted as he began to arrange the Tupperware in a box. "It always kind of freaked me out when the Chief got so riled up about something, usually me. It always made feel like I had done something wrong."

"Because he was usually so cool and detached?" she asked.

"Yeah, I suppose that's part of it," he answered. "When I was growing up, he was always in control, always so, as you put it, cool and detached. It didn't matter what he dealt with at work, it just never seemed to bother him. But if I got hurt or sick, he'd lose it."

"That must have been terrifying." Audrey had only seen the Chief lose it in the moments before his death. Until that point he had always been calm and in control. To see him as something other than super human was startling.

"When my mother was still alive, he'd just let her take care of me. When I was sick he'd work longer hours. Mom said it was so he didn't get sick because his job was so important. I just figured he didn't want to be around me."

"Or maybe he didn't want to appear weak in front of you by being so worried that he'd be useless," Audrey supposed. "He loved you, Nathan, and was probably worried that you would think less of him if he was useless. Most boys grow up idolizing their father. Weren't you the same way?"

Nathan finished packing up the Tupperware as he carefully considered how he'd answer the question. As a small boy he'd been terrified of the Chief, which in retrospect seemed odd. The Chief had always been supportive of Nathan's boyhood endeavors, from camping trips to wilderness scouts. It wasn't until his mother had died that Nathan saw a shift in the man he had always known as his father. "I guess I did," he finally answered truthfully. "At least until Mom died."

"I'm sensing that your mother's death changed a lot of things."

"Try everything," came the deadpan reply as he moved on to the next cabinet. It sat mostly empty except for a few pie plates and a large tempered glass casserole dish. He carefully removed the glassware and placed them on the counter before leaving to hunt down something to wrap them in so they wouldn't break while being moved.

"I don't remember having parents," Audrey called out. "I don't know that anyone ever really cared about me when I got sick or hurt myself. My memories, even if they're not _my_ memories, are all of being alone."

Nathan walked back into the kitchen carrying some old copies of _The Haven Herald_ and a roll of bubble wrap. He deposited them on the counter next to the glassware before turning around and grabbing Audrey, pulling her into a hug. "You're not alone any more, Audrey," he said before he leaned down to press a gentle kiss against her temple. "And neither am I."

She allowed herself to melt into his embrace, taking a deep breath to inhale the scent that was uniquely Nathan. He smelled like Irish Spring and aftershave, with a hint of laundry detergent and fabric softener. In the comfort of his arms, her mind drifted back to the days before Jess left, about how he had guessed that she didn't have any friends. When the case they had been working wrapped and Nathan admitted that Jess had left Haven, Audrey confided that until she got to Haven she didn't have friends. But now she had him.

The dynamic between them was delicate and further tested when he confessed that he could feel her touch. While it certainly answered any remaining questions about how Nathan knew that the Chameleon had replaced her on Carpenter's Knot, it had made her wonder if there was an unspoken shift in their relationship. There was more touching between them, for one thing. She would grab his hand or touch his arm if his sleeve was rolled up in order to get his attention; it was a unique way for her to be able to signal him without alerting suspects in potentially dangerous situations, especially since no one else knew that he could feel her.

However she was consciously aware of the way he would jerk or the way his breath would hitch when she touched him out of the blue. She was certainly aware that he would find excuses to touch her and that there was never a reaction when he initiated contact. At first it was odd high fives and awkward fist bumps, which then turned into him holding her hand to help her navigate rain slicked pathways or brushing the hair from her face. Tender touches that always made Audrey squirm just a little bit by how intimate they were, even though most of the time they were perfectly innocent.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice rumbling in his chest against Audrey's ear. She let out a content sigh and snuggled closer to him. "Parker?"

She couldn't stop the frown that came across her face, and pulled herself back so her partner could see her displeasure. "I'm fine," she retorted.

"Not that I mind the, uh, cuddling, but we do have a job to do," Nathan informed her, his voice tinged with guilt. Odd that he should feel guilty for reminding her that they had work to do.

Audrey took a deep breath and let go of Nathan, immediately missing the warmth of his body. She briefly wondered what skin to skin contact with him would be like, but managed to get off that particular train of thought before she hauled him upstairs to his old bedroom to find out. "Right. Boxing stuff up."

"Right," Nathan replied, cocking his head to the side and looking at her curiously. What on earth had gotten into her? Boxing up kitchenware could wait; he needed to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering Audrey. "Seriously, Parker, are you okay?"

"I suppose," she answered vaguely as she attacked the next cupboard, which appeared to house even more pots and pans.

"You suppose?" he echoed.

"It's just…helping you clean out the house and hearing you talk about growing up with the Chief is sort of driving home the fact that I don't know who I am or where I came from and that the person whose memories I do have grew up alone," she answered crossly as she started to pull on the handles closest to her.

"Audrey, I know who you are, and before you argue, hear me out. You help people who are Troubled. You help them gain control of their powers and if you can't do that, then you find a way to make life a little more bearable," he told her as he walked up behind her and pulled her against him. "You have quirky sense of humor. You have a moderate alcohol tolerance. You like to try things you've never done before. You can play the piano really well. You have absolutely no fear in telling me that my dancing is terrible. Do I need to go on?" he whispered against the shell of her ear, causing shivers to run through her body.

"Nathan," she said, her voice coming out as a strangled whine. He really wasn't helping her keep focused on the task at hand. The chuckle that followed her rather pitiful plea for release only weakened her resolve further. She scrunched her eyes shut and tried to regain her focus, but it was really hard to do with Nathan running his lips along the shell of her ear, driving her to distraction.

_Come on Audrey, think,_ she told herself. _Focus on anything but Nathan!_ She opened her eyes and looked at the cabinet in front of her, a wood handle suddenly taking her interest. She managed to shrug free of Nathan's hold and grabbed the handle, pulling it free. "What the…?"

"Is that a wok?" Nathan asked, forgetting that he had been hell bent on seducing Audrey only moments before.

"Why would the Chief have a wok?" she asked, holding up the large pan for her partner to inspect.

"I have no idea," Nathan replied as turned it over in his hands. "Oh, maybe it was a gift. There's a price tag on the bottom."

Audrey looked at the offending sticker. "So maybe your mom liked to cook Asian food?"

"No. She tried to make fried rice once. The whole kitchen almost caught fire," Nathan replied, one half of his mouth turned up at the memory of his mother scrambling for the fire extinguisher as the flames rose from the pan she had been using.

"Ah, it's the awkward, never-gonna-be-used wedding present. I've heard that there's one in every batch," she snickered. "And then they get shoved into a cabinet never to see the light of day until someone dies or moves."

"It's obviously never been used," Nathan said as he handed it back to Audrey. "It can be donated."

"Oh, I don't know about that. I've always wanted to try my hand at making Asian food," Audrey replied as she set it off to the side. "I think I'll give it a home."

"You're talking about it like it's a dog, Parker," he told her, giving her a look that was an adorable cross between confusion and admiration.

"It's a poor, homeless wok that's never been used and therefore never been loved. Therefore I'm going to take it home and use it and love it."

"And if your fried rice doesn't turn out?"

"There's always stir fry. That's practically idiot proof."

Nathan chuckled as he returned his attention to the pie plates and casserole pans. They worked quickly on emptying the cabinets, weeding through seemingly ancient pots and pans to find the ones that could be given a new home and those that had given up the ghost long ago. Once they reached the cupboards that the Chief had stored food, they sorted through various foodstuffs by date, tossing anything that had expired ( _"Nathan, this can of peaches is dated from 1992. It went the way of the dodo years ago."_ ) and placing anything that was still good into a couple of paper bags that would be taken to Haven's food bank.

"Is that everything?" Audrey asked two hours later, a light sheen of sweat on her brow from hauling the packed up boxes from the kitchen to the living room.

Nathan scanned the room before nodding. "That's everything. Now we get to scrub everything down."

This earned an eye roll from Audrey. "Joy," she mumbled.

"Compared to the bathrooms, this will be cake," her partner announced before heading off to find the cleaning supplies.

Audrey, on the other hand, wasn't as sure. As she and Nathan had excavated the content of the Chief's kitchen, it seemed that everywhere was dirty. Food crumbs in the pantry, cobwebs in the dark recesses of the cabinets, and a layer of grime coated everything. It made her wonder if the Chief had ever cleaned.

She watched Nathan walk back in with the bucket of cleaning supplies from the day before and place it in front of the refrigerator, which had been purged along with everything else. That had been a special kind of hell, as most everything had gone moldy and rather than salvage the Tupperware, most of it had been tossed. Audrey alternated between gagging and watering eyes as she helped Nathan sort through the meager contents of the Chief's fridge. It had been a sad reminder of how alone he had been at home.

"So where do we start?" she asked.

Her partner shrugged. "Wherever, I guess."

This earned a disgruntled snort from Audrey. She watched Nathan like a hawk while he filled up a spare bucket with warm, soapy water before handing her a sponge. She took it from him and then dunked it, holding it over the bucket while she tried to determine a good starting place. She finally settled on the cabinets on the right side of the door that led into the dining room. They worked in silence, and as Audrey reflected on what had happened prior to her finding the wok, it was probably for the best. The gravelly timbre of Nathan's voice could turn her knees to gelatin, and she really didn't need any more distractions. There were more important things to accomplish instead of dragging Nathan back to her apartment and finding out just how much of her partner was muscle.


	7. The Dining Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathan learns that his mother never threw things away, much to Audrey's amusement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hand if your mother kept your crappy clay art projects from school because she thought that they were cute.
> 
> Yup, mine too. Including a rather dumb looking snowman that's buried in the bowels of her china hutch...which served as the inspiration for the china hutch in this chapter.
> 
> I also based the china pattern off of my mother's - it's Old Country Roses by Royal Albert. The pattern was launched in 1962 and is an enduring favorite and by far one of the most popular china patterns of all time. And no, it cannot be put in the dishwasher, which meant that big holiday dinners involved a lot of hand washing. I thought about using my china pattern (Countess by Royal Doulton), but it's a shade too contemporary to have been around in the early 1980s.

With the grime cleaned from the kitchen, Audrey admitted to herself that it had probably been very cozy in its heyday. She made one final inspection to make sure she and Nathan hadn't missed anywhere before moving into the dining room, where Nathan stood rooted just past the doorway.

"Wow," Audrey said softly as she scanned the room. There was a fine layer of dust over everything. The pale blue table cloth was dull with years of dust, the film on the glass doors of the china hutch was thick enough it obscured the contents, and there were cobwebs in every imaginable corner. "It's like walking into the Munster's dining room."

"Nothing's moved," Nathan said quietly. "After she died, the Chief and I ate in living room, usually watching TV shows or the news."

"You never used the dining room?" she asked in confusion. "Not even for special occasions? What about holidays?"

"We usually were invited to other people's houses," he explained, his eyes a little glassy. "Most of our holiday meals were with the Teagues. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas…"

"That's…depressing," Audrey stated, causing Nathan to chuckle softly. "So what are you going to do now?"

He glanced at her, his face uncertain. "Well, I figure if you're still here, we'll have dinner together."

"With the Teagues?"

"Maybe. Or it might just be you and me at my place." He paused for a moment before amending, "Or your place. Whatever works."

He was so adorably flustered that Audrey only nodded in agreement. "We'll figure it out when we get there."

Nathan cracked a shy smile. "Yeah."

"Well, we should get started. We're going to need the vacuum cleaner," she noted as she stomped one foot on the carpet, raising a cloud of dust.

"I'll get it," Nathan said, making a quick exit from the room. Audrey watched him leave and noted that there was pink creeping up his neck.

Taking advantage of Nathan's absence, Audrey took the opportunity to study the dining room and discern what Nathan's boyhood had been like. If it weren't for the layer of dust, the dining room would have looked like it came from a magazine, showcasing Elizabeth Wuornos's impeccable taste. All of the furniture was antique and coordinated; a lovely cherry finish that spoke of elegance of an era past. The buffet was pressed flush against the wall the dining room shared with the kitchen, elegant scrollwork etched into the backboard and along the edges of the top. This had most likely been a room that was used for evening meals and special occasions, though Audrey supposed that they ate in the dining room every day for each meal. Unless they decided to eat in the living room while watching TV.

She then wandered towards the china hutch, up against the wall that the dining room shared with both the living and the sun room. It had the same scrollwork that was on the dining room table, chairs and buffet, clearly part of the set. Using her sleeve, she wiped away some of the dust on the glass and peered inside.

The contents were standard for a china hutch. There were a couple of collector's snow globes on the shelf directly in front of Audrey's face. The one at eye level was of a woman in a snowflake shaped tutu with a snowflake shaped crown on her head, a white and silver leotard, white toe shoes, standing _en pointe_ , arms in fourth position, encased in glass and water with fake snow and flakes of silver glitter. Audrey wondered if it was simply a snow globe or if it was also a music box. If it was a music box, she was willing to bet money that it played "The Waltz of the Snowflakes."

The rest of what Audrey could see was of china plates and tea cups. The pattern was of red, mauve and yellow roses – popular enough that she knew she had probably seen and handled something with the pattern on it at some point, but she can't remember who she was when she did.

"Is the china hutch really that fascinating?" Nathan's voiced rumbled through the silent room, startling Audrey and causing her to jump.

Placing a hand on her chest, she glared at her partner who was looking at her with interest from his spot at the doorway. "I was just curious."

"I used to call it mom's treasure cave," Nathan said, striding across the room to join his partner. "She kept some of her most precious possessions in there. Stupid clay figurines that I made in art class in elementary school, her collection of music boxes, the china we only ever used for special holiday meals and my great-grandmother's silver."

"I'm sure there's more in there," Audrey noted, her eyes assessing the sheer size of the piece. "Are those cupboards extra storage?"

"For table cloths, napkins, place mats, candles, all the frills that go with those big, holiday meals," her partner answered dryly as he headed back towards the cleaning supplies.

There was something in his tone that spoke of years of irritation towards the contents of the china hutch. If it was because his skills with clay were lack luster and his mother had kept them anyway, or if he simply hated all of the work that usually went into the large, holiday meals, she wasn't sure. After all, if Audrey was right, that was gold on the plates which meant they all had to be hand washed.

"So I guess we should get things cleaned up in here and then we'll pack stuff up?" Audrey asked.

"Yup," Nathan intoned.

Picking a place to start cleaning was proving difficult, until Audrey finally directed to one side of the room while she took up another. As she dusted the china hutch, Nathan excavated the buffet. Without prompting he began musing about is childhood, recounting stories from crazy holiday dinners and normal family meals in the Wuornos household. Audrey couldn't help but smile as Nathan went into detail about a particularly bad Christmas dinner in which the prime rib was burned to a crisp by a malfunctioning thermostat in the oven. He was detailing how smoke had come billowing out and a neighbor had called the fire department when they noticed, and of course by then the Chief had everything under control. They had ended up joining the Teagues for their turkey dinner.

Together they tackled the dining room table, with Audrey cleaning the crystal candlesticks when Nathan took the dust encrusted table cloth and placemats down to be washed. The candlesticks were beautiful and most likely reserved for holiday meals, and given that the table cloth and placemats were also out, she began to wonder when exactly Nathan's mother had died. It wasn't as if the Chief had been interred next to her and she really had no business poking about in Haven's cemeteries.

"I've got the wash still going. I may take the table cloths and the placemats back to my place. I may not have a use for them now, but who knows. Maybe I'll feel like making a fancy dinner sometime," Nathan announced as he strode back in.

"You can cook?"

"Don't sound so surprised," he deadpanned. "I'm actually a pretty decent cook, and yes, I can make more than pancakes."

"I didn't ask!" she replied in mock offense, but the quip had been on the tip of her tongue. Exactly at what point did the two start responding to unasked inquiries?

"I'm not a fantastic chef so it's not like I'm going to be opening a restaurant any time soon, but I can make more than ramen," he explained as he opened up the drawers on the buffet and started pulling out table cloths. "What about you?"

"If it comes from a box or a bag, I do all right. For put in me in front of a recipe, and I'm doomed. I can't make anything from scratch," she admitted as she began her investigation into the bowels of the china hutch. She pulled out several large serving platters and a set of tarnished silver candlesticks.

"I have no memories of huge family meals," she noted as she started piling up her finds on the now vacant dining room table. "The concept of the good china with the silver service and the crystal candlesticks is completely lost on me." She paused for a moment before adding, "You know, beyond the Normal Rockwell paintings, that is."

This earned a hearty chuckle from her partner, who was currently elbows deep in linen. Apparently his mother had table cloths with matching napkins and placemats for every possible occasion. There was deep rust colored one that Nathan remembered from Thanksgiving, a cranberry red one with poinsettias woven into it from Christmas, the Easter one had daffodils, lilies and grape hyacinths on it. He could remember nearly every single meal he had eaten with the table cloths, memories of his mother and his father to go with every stain.

"So how much are you going to keep? I can't imagine that you're just going to ditch your mother's china," Audrey said as she observed the growing plies of stuff on the table.

"I don't need all of the table cloths, napkins, or placemats. I don't really have a use for them," Nathan shrugged. "But the silver belonged to my grandmother and my great-grandmother before that, so I should keep it. As to the china, I really don't know. What would I use it for?"

"To use when you get married and start hosting the big holiday dinners?" Audrey suggested.

"Maybe," Nathan grunted, which Audrey knew to be, "Probably not but I don't want to say as much to you," in Nathan-speak. She decided it would be best to not press the issue with him.

"Okay, so I'll start boxing up the linens to be donated. Have you decided what you'll do with the rest of the things in the hutch? The snow globes and the little clay art projects? I'm kind of fond of the snowman. He's cute," Audrey grinned.

Her partner scowled at the mention of grade school art projects. He had rather hoped that they had broken or been lost, but his mother had always treasured those projects and had carefully stored them. After her death Nathan had stopped bringing the projects home, instead opting to leave them in the art room to be used as examples or disposed of. Not like the Chief would have had a use for them.

"I'm going to go check on the wash," Nathan said before making a hasty exit.

With a grimace, Audrey wondered if she had crossed a line somewhere. Nathan, on the best of days, was difficult to read. She felt that she understood him a little better than most people because she spent so much time with him, but Nathan was one to play it close to the vest. It certainly wasn't like he told Audrey every little detail of his life. She decided it was safer to return to packing up the linens before moving on to the silver coffee set.

The silver coffee set was an antique, with a date carefully engraved on the bottom of the tray, dating it back almost two hundred and twenty five years. There was a matching coffee pot, sugar caddy and milk jug, along with a spoon for the sugar and several smaller spoons that could be used to stir the coffee once served. With a bit of polish and some elbow grease, they would shine brightly in their former glory and hearken back to Haven's early days. Audrey had little doubt that the set could tell her everything about the mysterious town she called now home – granted it came to life and decided to chat her ear off. Mrs. Potts the coffee pot was not.

She was staring at the coffee pot as if it held the all of the secrets of the universe when Nathan walked back in. He raised his eyebrows before commenting, "You know, Parker, just staring at it won't polish it."

"I was just wondering the history this thing has seen," she replied dryly before grabbing some old newspaper to wrap it up in. "The date on the bottom of it is 1786. This set is almost two hundred twenty-five years old."

"Maybe I can sell it to the historical society," her partner responded sardonically.

"Aren't you even a little curious about your family history?" Audrey asked. As an orphan, or believing herself to be an orphan, meant that Audrey had plenty of memories of searching for her identity. The revelation that she was also Lucy had only added fuel to the fire.

"Not really," Nathan shrugged as he started to wrap up the brass candlesticks in newspaper.

"Not even a little?" she wheedled further.

"No."

She let out a small huff of irritation before she decided to make herself useful again and began to unpack the contents of the hutch in earnest. The snow globes were the first to come out, and with child like wonder Audrey pulled each one out and gave it a shake, smiling to herself as she watched the scene within. She had been wrong in thinking that they were the tacky, souvenir type snow globes. Instead they were beautifully crafted collectors pieces. There was the snowflake ballerina, of course, but then there was also a snow covered village, a wedding scene, one from _Gone With the Wind_ and another from _The Wizard of Oz._ Audrey was now extremely curious about what kind of a person Elizabeth Wuornos had been, but she knew better than to ask. Duke had warned her that Nathan's mother was something of a sore point and the last thing Audrey wanted to do was antagonize her partner.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she jumped when Nathan turned on the vacuum cleaner to attack the cobwebs around the ceiling. She mentally steeled her nerves, as she didn't want to spend the rest of time cleaning the Chief's house jumping out of her skin every time Nathan opted to start the vacuum cleaner or smack a few pillows to free them of their dust. Really, getting so wrapped up in her thoughts that she lost touch with reality was not the best way to spend the weekend.

So she set her shoulders and went to work, one ear open to what Nathan was doing. She wouldn't let herself be taken by surprise again for the rest of the weekend.


	8. The Sunroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the sunroom Audrey gains a little insight as to what Nathan's childhood was like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a couple of more chapters to go, and I admit, I'm a little sad to think of this ending. No, I'm not going to turn this into some sort of zombie story that should never end, but I might attempt to write something that follows it up. Maybe. We'll see. Anyway, this chapter deals with the sunroom, a room I have always wanted and hopefully, when the time comes for my husband and I to buy a house, we'll get one.
> 
> Also:
> 
> 1) The Chief's collection of National Geographic is based on my father's collection, which dates back to the seventies. Which I believe that I'll get when he dies, if I understood what he told me. Though that does mean that I'll have two copies of the magazine between 2000 and 2010...
> 
> 2) I always felt that Nathan would have tried to get the hell out of Haven, but ended up staying when he realized that the Troubles were back. Starting as a cop in a small town seemed like a logical step, with the hopes that he could then eventually move to a bigger town/city as he furthered his career.
> 
> 3) I'm pretty sure that if Audrey asks the Teagues and Duke nicely they'd help Nathan move, but for going through everything, Nathan would rather just work with Audrey. But when push comes to shove, Nathan and Audrey are simply two people and some of the bigger items would require more help to move.

Walking into what Nathan described as the sunroom, Audrey let out a soft gasp of delight. She understood why it was technically a sunroom – two of the four walls were comprised of windows around the upper half, with shelves turned benches running around beneath them. White wooden venetian blinds hung idly near the ceiling, probably having been up since the weather turned warm. In the corner was a large papasan chair, while what appeared to be a papasan loveseat was on the other side of a small end table, against the wall shared with the living room.

Audrey slid her shoes off and padded in, her feet noiseless on the plush carpet. Carefully she climbed into the single seat papasan and tucked her legs under her, settling in the lavish cushion. With a hum of satisfaction, she smiled at her partner. "I could get used to this."

"If you want them, you can have them," Nathan shrugged as he walked in, but he kept his shoes on. He parked himself temporarily on the bench, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees.

"I would take them, but my place just doesn't have the space for them," she sighed ruefully. "Oh God, I don't think I ever want to get up."

Half of Nathan's mouth quirked up into a smile. "This was the best room in the whole house," he told her. "In the summer the breeze would come in and cool it down and you could sit here and read for hours. In the winter you could curl up and watch it snow and not worry about getting cold."

"That must have been really nice," Audrey said wistfully.

"It was," Nathan answered softly. He took a deep breath and looked around. The sunroom was by far the simplest room in the whole house, containing well worn copies of the family's favorite books and a collection of _National Geographic_ magazines that dated back to the sixties. There wasn't any overt décor, not one painting on the wall or a kitschy figurine. Everything in the room was dedicated to reading and relaxing, a sanctuary from the daily grind. During his tense adolescence it had been his haven from the stressed relationship he had with the Chief.

"So what are we doing with all of the magazines and books?" Audrey asked as she looked around the room.

"I took all of the books I wanted from here when I moved out. The rest either belonged to my mom or the Chief. Feel free to pick the ones you want to keep and the rest I'll give to the used book store," he answered as his eyes darted to the larger bookshelf.

"And the magazines?" she asked, sweeping her arm to indicate to the sea of yellow spines that ran around the base of the floor.

The Chief's collection of _National Geographic_ was something that had always been a source of wonder for Nathan. As a small boy he used to take the magazines and open them up, getting lost in the photographs and imagining the world beyond Haven. They had provided him with years of escape from a life he hated, and he was loath to depart with them.

"I'll take them home," he answered after a long pause. Audrey wondered if he really meant it.

"There are a lot of them here, Nathan," she pointed out. "We could always recycle them."

"No!" Nathan answered quickly. Perhaps a tad too quickly. Taking a deep breath, he regained his composure and answered again. "It was one of the few things that Chief and I actually agreed on. I would get his collection of _National Geographic_ magazines after he passed."

"What? Did you guys read them together?" Audrey asked, craning her neck so she could get a better look at her partner.

"Nah," he answered, "I always read 'em when he was done. I used to look at the pictures as a kid and dream about seeing the world. I wanted to be a traveling photographer or a journalist or anything that would get me out of Haven."

"So why did you ultimately come back to Haven?" she asked, but the look on Nathan's face answered for him. "Right, the Troubles."

"That was most of it, yeah," he agreed. "Why does anybody come to Haven? The troubled are drawn here for some reason; I'm just one of many. Initially I thought that I could get my start here and then transfer to someplace bigger, like Bangor and then on to Portland, and then from there maybe Boston."

"And then the Troubles came back," Audrey continued, realizing that there was no way that Nathan could ever leave Haven. Even those who weren't troubled were drawn back to the town despite their best efforts to leave. Duke Crocker was proof enough. "Man, that has to suck."

"I've resigned myself to the idea," Nathan shrugged. "Besides, if I had left, I wouldn't have met you."

For that statement, he was rewarded with one of his partner's brilliant smiles. Her eyes danced with happiness for a moment before she sobered and sighed. "We should probably get to work, huh?" she asked, looking around once more.

"Yeah," he agreed as he rose. "I'll go get some boxes." When he reached the doorway he stopped and turned to his partner, who was currently snuggling into the cushion of the papasan like a contented cat. "Are you going to help, or should I push the chair into the sunny spot so you can nap?"

Audrey rolled her eyes and curled her lip in response, before unfolding herself from the chair. She wasn't particularly long legged, but Nathan had an idea of what she'd be like in a more intimate setting, wrapped around him. However, those were dangerous thoughts so he headed into the living room to get some boxes while Audrey started sorting through the paperbacks. When he returned he found a stack of books on the end table, and then another messy pile on the papasan love seat.

"Finding anything worth reading?" Nathan asked.

"As a cop, you'd think I'd avoid mystery novels, but these gothic romantic mysteries intrigue me. I'm kind of a sucker for the Victorian period. It's mostly the clothes, though, but the idea of wearing a corset kind of freaks me out a little," Audrey shrugged as she tossed another book into the pile. "Wow, this author was prolific. I'll have to Google her later."

Squatting, Nathan reached for a bunch of paperbacks that were off to the side of the _National Geographics_. "She wrote these, too. She had something like four pseudonyms, and wrote different genres depending on the name she was using. These are the books based on the various queens. My mom said that the history was accurate, which is why she liked them so much. She said that they were so much more than stories because they were based on real life."

" _Victoria Victorious_ , huh?" Audrey said as she took one of the novels that Nathan handed her when he stood up again. "A fictionalized account of Queen Victoria's life; could be interesting."

"If you decide that you don't like them, you can take them to the used book store at any time. They're always looking for new stock," he shrugged.

"Are you going to box up the magazines?" Audrey asked as her partner started to tape up the bottoms of boxes.

"The older ones have special protective cases that are in the basement and I can just throw those in the back of the Bronco," he answered. "The rest, however, will be boxed."

"I can't say that I'm looking forward to hauling those into your house," Audrey noted dryly. The magazines on their own tended to be fairly hefty, and the idea of hauling four decades worth of magazines around was not appealing in the least. Perhaps she could convince the Teagues and Duke to lend a hand when the time came.

"If it makes you feel any better, neither am I, but I can't just throw them away," Nathan replied with a soft chuckle.

"It must be nice, knowing that you'll always have that part of your dad," Audrey said as she started loading the books she had decided not to keep into a box that Nathan placed by her. "I thought that I had something of my mother's, but now it's something that I owned the last time I was here." She stilled her movements for a moment, and then started to pick at the fraying cover of the paperback she held in her hands. "Memories are a weird thing for me, I guess. I don't know what's real and what's not."

"The memories you have of me are real, right?" Nathan supplied. "That's real and you should never, ever doubt that."

"Great, a few months of memories are all that are real for me. I don't even know if I'm real," Audrey muttered.

"Hey," Nathan said, frowning. "We're going to get through this. Just like we're getting through taking care of the Chief's things, we'll get through the Troubles. We'll figure out who you are and why you're so important to this town. Together."

The earnest expression on Nathan's face calmed Audrey's nerves. He was her partner, and that meant that through whatever the Troubles threw their way, they would face it together. It was odd, the sensation of knowing that there was someone ready to back you up if you just gave the word. The other Audrey had almost obsessively worked alone. Being partnered had never ended well, and so she ended up being handed the cases where more than one agent would have been overkill. Working as a single part of a large group seemed to be the only way for her to operate, when she could take a small portion of the job and work on it on her own without someone else constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure that she was doing her work correctly.

"Yeah," she said, giving him a smile in return, "we'll get through this together."

They worked in silence for a long while until Audrey's stomach rumbled loudly. She laughed nervously, her eyes darting to where Nathan was still packing boxes of magazines. He glanced up at her for only a moment before returning to work. "So, um, I think that we should get lunch after this," she said with a nervous giggle.

"Anything in particular that you want?" Nathan asked.

"Well, food would be nice, but I'm not craving anything in particular," Audrey replied with a shrug. "We can always just hit up the Gull. I think a burger and fries would be good after all the work we've done. And after cleaning out the Chief's fridge, the idea of setting foot in a proper kitchen kind of horrifies me right now."

"We can haul everything into the living room and go for lunch," Nathan said. "And then we can clean the living room after."

"Sounds like a plan," Audrey agreed with a grin.

It didn't take long for them to box up the rest of the books and magazines. She helped Nathan haul them out to the living room, stacking the boxes of _National Geographic_ with the rest of the items that Nathan would take back to his place while the boxes with the books to be donated were placed next to the overflowing boxes of linens and kitchen utensils destined for Goodwill. Audrey had her own stack of boxes with items that she would take to use, and decided that when they left for lunch she would ask Nathan to help her load everything into the car.

"So, have you decided what to do with the papasan chairs?" Audrey asked as they deposited the last box of magazines in the living room.

"I think I'll take them home," Nathan informed her. "You seem to like them quite a bit, and I have some space. Maybe I'll set up a reading corner."

Biting down on her lower lip to keep herself from grinning idiotically, Audrey bobbed her head in approval. "I like that sound of that."

He gave her a half smile. "I thought that you might."

"If this is some sort of evil plan to get me to spend more time at your place, I will admit that it's working," Audrey noted as she grabbed her jacket and her purse.

Nathan merely grinned at her.


	9. The Living Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the Chief's living room Audrey learns that appearances can be deceiving.

"I think I ate too much."

Nathan glanced at his partner before returning his attention to the road, choosing to ignore her. He was well aware of how much Audrey had eaten, even commenting that she might want to take it easy as they still had to clean the living room and, time permitting, the basement. She had argued back that she would be fine, but given the way she was uncomfortably shifting in her seat he knew otherwise.

"Okay," she grudgingly admitted as she adjusted the belt on her jeans. "You were right, but my God, those chili cheese fries were practically a religious experience."

"I told you," he answered smugly.

"Fair warning, I might get sick later," she informed him, one hand on her chest as if she was trying to suppress something.

"You know where the bathroom is," he grunted.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Thank you for being so supportive."

Nathan smirked. "No problem."

When they pulled up in front of the Chief's house, Audrey set her mouth in a determined line before opening the door to get out. She waddled miserably after her partner to the front door, groaning softly as she mounted the steps. "Remind me to never get the extra large plate of chili cheese fries from that greasy spoon ever again."

"I can try," Nathan shrugged, "but I doubt that you'd listen."

She merely glared at his back as he unlocked the door and stepped in. She followed in sour silence, stopping behind him in the middle of the room. He looked around, his eyes unfocused. It wasn't the first time that Audrey had lost her partner to the past, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She watched him intently until he was facing her, when he blinked a few times a focused on her amused expression.

"Welcome back," she teased.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I know it sounds weird, but it's becoming real. The more we clean the more apparent it becomes that I'm not going to be seeing him again."

Reaching up, Audrey cupped her hand against his cheek. "I know."

Taking a shaky breath, Nathan forced himself to step away from his partner and her comforting touch. "We need to get all of this stuff boxed up."

"Where do we want to start?"

"Let's take the paintings down," Nathan said, indicating to the multiple nautical themed paintings.

"I swear, it's like your dad decorated this place like an out of date B&B," Audrey noted as she started for the closest wall.

"After she died, anyway," Nathan informed her. "It was like he didn't want to be reminded of her."

"Your mom?"

"Yeah." Nathan stopped and turned to face his partner. "The Christmas tree was always put in that corner there by the TV. Mom made our stockings out of felt, using a design that she dreamed up." He smiled wistfully. "She put a salmon on the Chief's."

"What was on yours?" Audrey asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Nathan colored and turned back to removing pictures from the walls. He should have known better, though, his partner was stubborn. "Oh no. You don't get to blow this one off. Was it super embarrassing?" Nathan remained silent. "If it was a train it's not embarrassing, it's sweet."

"It looked like the train from _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,_ " Nathan sighed.

"The one with the square wheels?"

"The same."

"Awww!" his partner cooed.

"And that was why I didn't tell you."

"Because I cooed at you?"

"I really loved watching _Rudolph_ with my mom at Christmas, and the train was always my favorite character," Nathan explained.

Audrey smiled. "Must have been nice."

"Yeah, it was," Nathan agreed. "This weekend has been hard, but I'm glad that I'm doing it. I had forgotten the good parts and held on the bad."

"Is that what killed your relationship with the Chief?" Audrey asked as she stacked up the paintings along the baseboard to be hauled out later.

"Probably." Nathan snorted in disdain. "I'm an idiot."

"People make mistakes, Nathan. It's part of life."

"Yeah, well, it's too late now, isn't it?"

"This is Haven. It might not be."

"Oh God. I don't want to think about a trouble that raises the dead."

"You and me both. I'd hate to think that the zombie apocalypse starts here," Audrey dryly noted.

Nathan turned his attention back to the walls and let out an irritated sigh. "I've got a lot work to do before I can put this place on the market. He never patched up the holes from the family photos."

"So we'll have to come back next weekend to spackle and paint?" Audrey asked.

"Yup," Nathan answered.

"Joy."

"I promise not to flick paint on you," Nathan swore.

Audrey smirked. "I think you should promise not to do decoupage on the walls," she informed him. "I can't imagine that particular artistic endeavor will do anything for the market value."

"You don't do decoupage on the walls, Parker," he deadpanned.

"Why not?" she asked him. "That's one hell of a canvas to work with. You could make an incredible piece of art doing that."

"A piece of art that I can't take with me should I decide to move," he reminded her. "If I thought that I was going to stay in the house until I died, I suppose it'd be interesting to try out."

"That's the spirit!" she cheered.

Rolling his eyes, Nathan shifted his focus to the bookcase with the Chief's collection of movies. "Oh geeze," he sighed.

"What?" Audrey asked as she wandered over. Taking in the contents of the shelf, she pursed her lips in order to suppress her laughter. "Wow. That's a lot of tapes."

"The Chief wasn't a fan of DVDs," Nathan noted. "Not that he had much of a choice in the last few years, but a lot of his favorite movies were on VHS."

"Hey, what are those?" Audrey asked, leaning over Nathan and plucking a nondescript tape from the shelf. There was nothing written on it, which made it all the more intriguing. There were several others like it.

"Probably blank tapes for the Chief to record games on," Nathan shrugged.

Not one to take Nathan's word at face value, Audrey took the tape to the media center and inserted it into the VCR. After a few tries she got the TV to the right channel and let out a gasp of delight at the image on the screen. "Aw, look at you, skating around like a mini-Wayne Gretzky!"

Turning towards the TV, Nathan's jaw dropped in horror. "Oh God."

" _Say hi, Nathan!_ " a female voice cooed from the speakers.

" _Hi Mom!_ " young Nathan said with a wave of a gloved hand.

" _Lizzie, give me the camera and get out there_ ," the unmistakably gruff voice of the Chief said.

The picture jostled around a bit before it refocused on Nathan and his mom. Elizabeth was average height and slender, Nathan standing next to her smiling shyly at the camera.

" _So what are we doing today?_ " the Chief asked.

" _Today is the big hockey tournament,_ " Nathan replied, beaming at the camera.

" _Why are you out here on the pond?_ "

" _I'm getting in more practice._ "

" _Can you show us what you've been practicing?_ "

Little Nathan took off along the ice, expertly handling the puck before sending it flying into the net of the goal. The Chief and Elizabeth both cheered loudly, and a pleased little boy beamed at the camera.

The TV suddenly flicked off, causing Audrey to glare up at her partner. "Now that was uncalled for."

"All that's left is the game itself. You don't want to watch it, trust me. Besides, we have cleaning to do."

Audrey made a face. "Spoilsport." She rose from where she had been sitting on the floor and stretched herself out before she began helping Nathan put the tapes into a box. "So how did the game end?"

"We won, but not after I got removed from the game after taking a particularly hard hit into the boards by Duke," Nathan answered flatly.

"Wow, if it's not one thing with you two, it's another," Audrey murmured as she began stacking the tapes neatly in the box.

"It's our thing," he shrugged. "Apparently we take turns annoying each other. I don't even remember why Duke singled me out in that game, but just that he did."

"I can't say that I'd ever see Duke as the hockey playing type," she mused as she finished off the shelves with the videos while Nathan moved on to the magazine stand. "Baseball? Sure. I can even see him as a surfer, bumming around beaches all day. But playing Pee-Wee hockey? Yeah, the image does not compute."

"He was good, actually. We figured that if he had kept up with it he might have made it all the way to the NHL but he found his calling elsewhere," Nathan explained as he began dumping the magazines into a bag that would be taken to the recyclers at a later date.

"Just goes to show that every time I think I've got you two figured out, something changes," she said as she pushed the box to where the others sat.

"I'm simple to figure out. Duke's the wildcard."

"So you say," Audrey replied. With a sigh, she looked around the living room. Anything that could even be remotely described as personal had been removed, leaving hulking pieces of furniture and bright spots on the wall.

"I think we're done here," Nathan observed.

"Now the million dollar question: do we tackle the basement now or wait until tomorrow."

Running his hand over his scalp, Nathan took a deep breath and released it slowly. "It can wait."

Audrey nodded. "Whatever you say."


	10. The Basement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the memories are harder to face that one expects.

Audrey stared into the abyss.

The abyss stared back.

Or maybe that was just Nathan, waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her to join him. "There's nothing down there that will get me, right? Large spiders? Insects with more than six legs? Anything with razor sharp teeth?" she asked.

He sighed. "No."

Setting her mouth into a firm line, Audrey descended the stairs and tentatively looked about. The basement was large and open, with only a few areas sectioned off. Peering through one door she saw the washer and dryer along with a rather large pile of as yet to be folded laundry. The other door was closed, causing Audrey to frown. An open storage area was tucked in a corner, wall to ceiling shelves loaded down with boxes lining the walls.

"So, what purpose did the basement serve?" Audrey asked as she took in the wood paneling, brown carpet and ratty furniture. The air smelled of cigarette smoke and stale beer, causing her to wrinkle her nose.

"This is where Mom banished the Chief to watch sports," Nathan explained. "Here he could yell and scream and not bother her."

"Smart woman," Audrey said appreciatively. "So what are we doing with this stuff?"

"The furniture will be tossed. It's been on its last legs for years. The TV still works so I'll just donate that to the thrift store, and I'll have to sort through the boxes," he answered, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around.

"Yay, more boxes," she deadpanned. "And what's behind door number three?"

"Ah, my mom's craft room," Nathan said, his brow furrowing. "I haven't been in there since she died. I don't know if the Chief ever cleaned it out."

"Well, do we open Pandora's Box now or do we wait until we've gone through the boxes?"

"Let's go through the boxes," Nathan answered almost automatically. Audrey rolled her eyes, but she didn't protest. She knew that her partner would have to face his mother's ghost, figuratively and not literally – at least that was what she hoped – when he was ready.

Following him to the storage nook, as it wasn't much bigger than a large closet, she sighed in relief when she saw that the boxes were all neatly labeled. "Well isn't that handy, everything labeled liked that?"

"Maybe," he answered as he pulled a box down that was marked "Halloween Decorations." Pulling the lid off, he poked around a bit, pulling out plastic spiders, a few plastic skulls and some half melted candles. "This one is labeled correctly."

"Let's see if the streak continues," Audrey said as she reached for a box that was labeled with "Christmas" in large, blocky letters. Prying open the lid, she grinned and pulled out a plastic bag with a Santa beard in it. The beard had been gotten by the Chief years before to use for the Haven PD's Christmas party, but was cancelled due to excessive snow. It had since languished in the box, never worn. "Too good to pass up," Audrey chuckled as she opened the packaging, fluffed the beard and the strapped it on. "How do I look?"

Nathan looked up from a sparkly green bowler hat. "Not bad." He put the hat on and turned from side to side. "What about me?"

"Very nice," she smirked. "Very Irish. Very kissable." He cocked his eyebrow at her as she groaned. "That was terrible, I apologize."

"As well you should," he chastised as he pulled the bowler off and tossed it back in the box marked with "St. Patrick's Day" and a few poorly drawn shamrocks in green crayon. "I think these are just the holiday decorations. It's nothing sentimental, just crepe paper and cardboard wall hangings that should be tossed."

"I think I'm going to keep the beard. Maybe I can find a use for it," Audrey said as she pulled it from her face.

"If you say so," Nathan said as he started to make cursory checks of the remaining boxes. Once they had been checked for anything valuable, Audrey took them and stacked them against the wall next to the bottom of the stairs to be hauled upstairs later. After an hour of going through boxes and weeding out the few things that Nathan wanted to keep ( _Nathan, those are wax pilgrims. Why do you need to keep them?_ ) from the rest of the trash ( _Honestly, how many plastic spiders are in this box?!_ ), the storage nook was clear.

"I suppose it could have been worse," Audrey noted as she hefted the last box on the top of the stack by the stairs.

"At least most of it is being thrown away," Nathan said as he headed towards the laundry room.

"Laundry? Seriously?"

"Most of it can just be tossed into sacks," he shrugged. "Shirts, pants, and so on."

"Fine, fine, but you're handling anything that didn't see the light of day," she informed him as she accepted a sack and began folding shirts. They worked in silence, but Audrey was sure that a few times Nathan was going to speak. However he'd always clamp his mouth shut and keep working, until the stack of clothing was bundled into sacks to be hauled to the thrift store later.

That left the inevitable craft room. Nathan stood at the door for ten minutes before finally pushing it open, and then stood in the doorway for another fifteen. Impatient, Audrey nearly shoved him through the open door, but realized at the last second that doing so would only irritate her partner. Nathan was a lot easier to get along with when he was in a good mood.

When he finally walked into the room, Audrey trailed behind, her eyes scanning the faded wallpaper. Along one wall was a desk with a sewing machine set it up on it. Above the sewing machine there was a strip of cork, a paper pinned to it. There was fabric folded and stacked next to the sewing machine. Elizabeth had been in the middle of something when she died.

"It was nearly Halloween," Nathan murmured. "She always made my costumes."

"I'm sorry," Audrey said, putting her hand on his shoulder and squeezing. After she let go, she continued to look around the room. There was a large dresser, no doubt containing extra fabric and the patterns and various notions. A full length mirror was hung on the wall next to the dresser, and the remaining free wall had a small gallery of pictures. Wandering over to take a closer look, she realized that it was all photos of Nathan in various Halloween costumes. One year he was a bear, another hockey playing zombie, and perhaps Audrey's favorite was Nathan dressed as a young police officer, wearing what she assumed to be the Chief's Haven PD coat.

"I have no idea what's in here," Nathan sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "I suppose we should just box it up and sort through it later. I don't think I'd know what to do with half the stuff in here."

"Well, at least anything that could lend itself to decoupage will have a good home," she teased.

"I am never going to live that down, am I?" he grunted as he opened one of the dresser drawers. It was filled with fabric scraps.

"So what do you plan to do with all that fabric?" Audrey asked.

"No clue. I should just throw it away," Nathan muttered as he rifled through it.

"Is there's a quilting group or something that would take a donation of fabric?" Audrey asked.

Rubbing his jaw, Nathan considered Audrey's question. It was entirely possible that the local quilting circle would accept the scraps of fabric, using what they needed and discarding the rest. They often sewed quilts for local families that suffered some sort of trauma, like house fires or terrible accidents in the winter. "There is a local quilting circle. They might be interested."

"Good. I'd hate to waste these Superman print scraps," Audrey grinned, holding up said piece of fabric.

"Yeah, that would be a real shame," Nathan said, his lips twitching up in a ghost of a smile.

Audrey tackled the area near the sewing machine, carefully tucking the pieces of fabric away in a box. She didn't know if she could sew, Audrey Parker didn't know how to sew, anyway, but it was possible that Lucy Ripley, or maybe one of her previous identities, knew how. This was the last costume that Nathan's mother was making for him, she couldn't just get rid of it. It wouldn't be right.

They worked in silence, occasionally making a comment on some odd or end that they found, laughing over silly shaped buttons and gaudy trims. Finally all that was left was the gallery of Nathan's Halloween costumes.

"So, are these going home with you?" Audrey asked.

Nathan stared at the photos. He was smiling in every single one, painful memories of happier days looking back at him. "I don't know yet."

"You've claimed every other family photo in the house," Audrey pointed out, "I don't see why you can't take these, too."

"I'm just not sure that I want them," he replied with a frown.

"Well if you don't want them, I'll take them," Audrey shrugged as she started taking them from the wall and placing them in the box with what would have been Nathan's Halloween costume. "You're adorable in these."

Nathan snorted and waited as Audrey finished packing her box. "All that's left is the furniture. It can wait until later."

"What about the sewing machine?"

"I have no idea, I have no use for it. You?"

"I don't know if I know how to use it."

"It can go to the quilting circle, too. Maybe they know of someone who needs it," Nathan shrugged. "How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a plan," Audrey grinned.

They started hauling the boxes that were stacked by the stairs up to the living room, working in silence once again. Audrey was contemplating why Nathan wouldn't want his childhood photos; Nathan was wondering why Audrey did want them.

"I didn't realize it was so late," Audrey mused as she set a box on the floor. Looking out the window, she noticed the sun was starting to set.

"Well, time flies when you're having fun," Nathan replied with a sardonic twist of his lips.

Audrey merely shook her head.


	11. Locking Up - Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reflecting on everything they've found, Audrey and Nathan contemplate what the future holds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this, and especially those who took the time to review it.

Nathan locked the door after he shut it before going to sit down next to Audrey on the front steps of the Chief's house.

"Now, was that so bad?" Audrey asked as he settled himself next to her.

"I'm glad it's done," he confessed.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Turning to look at her, Nathan frowned. "I wasn't looking for anything."

"Maybe, maybe not," Audrey shrugged. "But you found something, didn't you?"

Nathan considered everything he and Audrey had unearthed over the last few days. His mother's hope chest, the letters that she had written to him and his father before she died, the home movies, things that he had forgotten about or didn't know about. With a sigh he rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, contemplating her words.

"I guess…I guess I found out that things weren't the way I thought they were," he answered slowly. "I wanted to believe that I understood everything that happened when I was a kid. I never considered that I could be wrong."

"It seemed to me that the Chief was trying to protect you from the less savory facts of your childhood," Audrey said as she reached over and rubbed his back. "Parents usually want what's best for their kids, even if that means keeping things from them."

"I think that the Chief was just looking out for me, in the end. There was a lot he couldn't tell me because I would have never believed him," Nathan admitted. "Like everything that happened with my mother. I hated her, _hated her_ , when she died. I couldn't believe she'd just leave me like that, leaving me with the Chief, who had no idea what he was doing. He was trying his best and I never gave him any credit."

"I don't really understand child-parent relationships. All of my memories come from someone who grew up in group homes and foster care. I used to dream about my family coming to get me, telling me that they gave me up because they couldn't take care of me but now they could," Audrey explained, looking out over the lawn. "Of course that's a giant lie and probably not even my dream, but it's still in my head."

"I'm sorry," Nathan said as he scooted closer to her on the step. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her body against his. "This had to have been difficult for you too. For you to see everything that you didn't have."

Audrey gave a listless shrug in response. "It doesn't really matter at this point. I need to get to the bottom of who or what I am. If I'm not Audrey Parker, I probably wasn't Lucy Ripley either. The truth is, I may never know." She looked up at him, the way he was looking out at the grass in front of them with a distant expression. "But I think it's important for you to know who you are, and what role you play in this town. You help the Troubled. That's admirable, and I think that's what the Chief wanted."

He looked down at her hand half of his mouth pulled up into a grin. "Yeah, I guess that is something."

"Now," Audrey said, nudging Nathan's side with her elbow, "what do you say to dinner and drinks at the Gull?"

"Like…a date?"

"Well, unless you count me sweet-talking Duke into helping us move furniture next week a date, I'm going to say no," Audrey chuckled.

"Fair enough. I don't think I want to be on a date with you while you're sweet-talking Duke," Nathan agreed. "But I'm still buying you dinner."

"Oh yeah, wouldn't dream of having it any other way," Audrey grinned. "After all, I didn't go through those boxes in the attic for nothing, mister."


End file.
